Poetry...who needs it?

In celebration, or rather protest, of National Poetry Month, I'm passing on this essay from Charles Bernstein entitled "Against National Poetry Month As Such." He basically argues that there should not be a month dedicated to the reading, writing, or celebration of verse.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. You've survived a unit focused solely on poetry. You've read poems about the scandalous cutting of hair, the massacring of frogs, the abuse of children....and maybe there was a happy poem in there somewhere...Maybe?

Regardless, you all have your own opinions on poetry and its merits (or lack thereof). Are poems "much ado about nothing" or do they have a place in our literary study? Can the readers and interpreters of poetry go too far when analyzing verse, or do some of you delight in the scavenger hunt that ensues when a poem is read and dissected before your very eyes?

Please post a response to this essay and the questions I have posed before next Monday, May 2
You WILL be receiving a grade for your participation, so no post = no points.

Even if you don't care for poetry, I still want to hear from you. Heck, Charles Bernstein feels that poetry shouldn't have its own month, and he wrote a five page essay on why not!

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/044106.html