Some submissions go so far as to include the appealing author photos, and almost all come with at least one and usually three endorsements from faculty who know full well that their own success with their programs is in seeing their students get published. Occasionally, some original voices. Too often, tepid prose containing derivative work that is usually autobiographical. The problem is, few of these young writers have had enough life experience to make their autobiographical stories or their visions of the world of much interest. Creative writing programs do not, however, thrive on gently telling their students to go back and try again.
Students generally graduate.
If we do, we have an audience, but it is suspect. I submit that moviemaking would then be a dead art. I have likened poetry to fencing in the past, another dead art, attended mainly by aficionados who also fence. Lawn bowling might be another good metaphor for it. Any art that requires a little work to enjoy, as poetry does, pales in comparison to an art that can satisfy near all the senses with little or no effort on the part of the psyche.