Why should I read poetry?

Yes, yes I took a minor in English, but had to be spoonfed meaning and interpretation in most poems surveyed in the curriculum, except for those lamenting the war dead or imagistically representing a brave, chaotic new world post-armistice.

It may be that my mind is not ruminative or patient enough to peel layers of meaning and intent in poems. Some poems are simple; others are difficult. My mind runs at a great pace, not necessarily in one direction at a time, so when I stop for a poetry break I'm not "ooh, I would like something difficult please." I'm wanting a playful diversion.

I either like how the words smash against each other by sound, or I like a vivid single image. My son's teacher shamelessly professes her love of poetry and loves to share that passion. Me, I read either Dorothy Parker's "Frustration" or Hart Crane's "Chaplinesque".

What brought this on? 8.3% of the US populace has read a poem in the last twelve months. If we agree that "Frustration" or "Chaplinesque" are poems (the latter most certainly qualifies), or include Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" then I'm one of the 8.3%. But seventeen years ago more like 17% of the populace read poems. Whose poems were being read? Whose poems do you read?

When I was reading poetry, back in my twenties, I read:
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Dorothy Parker
Charles Baudelaire
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Anne Sexton
Sylvia Plath
William Butler Yeats
William Carlos Williams

I even wrote poetry. No, I will not share. I have too much respect for my audience. But in this bleak and gloomy period, the only poems I've read are Wislawa Szymborska's and Homer's epic poem "The Iliad." Whom should I read? Is there a place for poetry nowadays among those out of school?