What Happens When the Poets are Gone?

There are many science fiction stories about the last tree, or last circus, or whatever.  But what about the last poet?  How long has it been since you last read a poem (on purpose)?  Can you remember a poem that impacted you?

Poetry seems out of place in our get-to-the-point or bottom-line-upfront culture.  In Poetry not all unicorns and flowers, says poet laureate Kay Ryan, she tells that the first time we read a poem, we are only deciding to read it.  Learning to read poetry takes practice and it make take a dozen reads or more to understand a poem.  And ... if it is that difficult to read, how difficult is it to write?  Perhaps it is not that surprising that it is a dying art form. 

I can understand how cursive handwriting is becoming antiquated, but poetry is a human expression.  Are we becoming less human when we lose a forum for crying out what it is to be human?  Perhaps we need to recapture the passion of poetry exemplified in Robin William's Dead Poets Society.

If you are interested, click to the Academy of American Poets site, poets.org.   Maybe you might want to reacquaint yourself with poetry.  As an example, try Now I Understand by Linda Gregg.  Do you feel life in the poem?