Yes, they will be learning with you and your work, but hopefully there will be, in the end, your poems between the covers of a book. A small publisher may agree to publish your book if you help pay to have your book printed. I know there was this stigma of self-publishing or vanity publishing. It has largely been advanced to cover up the publishing industry's dirty little secret. You know, now, what the publisher learns sooner or later - that poetry books by single, unknown authors will not pay, let alone make money.
Someone has to pay the printer.
Often to keep publishing, a publisher will agree to do a book if you pay the printer. This process has several guises. The publisher can ask that you get a grant for the publication of your book. The publisher can ask that you buy a number of your books from the company at a certain agreed upon price. This is not so bad as you get your book done, you get enough copies to give to your friends and those you wish to impress and sell the rest at readings.