Thats on him for not being clear. Many types of poetry and different styles of writing. don't doubt yourself over his inability to be clear.

If you want to be a writer, write every day, not just when someone asks you to do it. Your ability is to be judged by editors and publishers. Unless your boyfriend is one, as a writer you should pay little heed. Does the average reader like "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"? Remember, how many publishers rejected the first Harry Potter manuscript before one decided it was worth publishing.

Maybe he thinks poems have to rhyme?

post the poem! post the poem!

I was an English major for two years in school (before I changed to game design as it has more opportunities and I enjoy it more), with lots of amazing critiques from my teachers and even had a poem published in some local media. Just because your boyfriend is too much of a neanderthal to understand your art, does not make it bad. You probably wrote it in a scheme that wasn't the average rhyme. He most likely doesn't understand that poems can be written in multiple types of rhythm some of which lack in the rhyming department. Continue your work, but maybe have a teacher or a peer that is also a poet look at your work. If you get a bad review it could be that you wrote a crappy poem, it happens eventually and is unavoidable. People won't like what you write 100% of the time and that is something you need to understand. Creative writing is even more so a testament to this fact. I would only say that you might need to think about your career choices, if you are hesitant about the job market. English is near the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to career paths (the reason I'm in game design now) and if you can't write a good story or reveal some hard fact that is shocking to society, you wont get much out of this choice. Good luck OP, I hope to read your work someday, don't feel dismay at your boyfriend's ignorance.

Maybe your boyfriend is dumb and just can't understand it

Tell him that you actually worked hard on that, that he's not getting another, and that that's as real as it gets.

Writing is a process. Don't be afraid of criticism, embrace it. Ask him what makes him think what he does before forsaking your goal. For all you know, the mistake could be a simple one, like a misunderstanding of meaning, or a lapse in rhythm.

He could have at least pretended to like it

Or rethink your boyfriend choice...