Poetry

Joe Joseph, writing in The Times, says there's not much poetry read these days; that what is written could be put into a very small anthology, whereas novels, well there's thouands of them written and your shelves at home might well be in danger of falling with all those books piled on them.
Well there is, actually, a good deal of poetry written but not many people read it. Other poets do. Reviewers of poetry collections do. Not the general public.
Much of it, of course, is not easy to understand. One big criticism of modern poetry is that it does not readily engage itself with the general public. There's not much of it that is quotable; it's not easy to remember; and there is not that directly accessible "thought" that makes one feel that something important is being said.
Some of it is too much like prose: you wonder sometimes why the writer has put it into lines because it can be read like prose.
And rhymes are not liked much.
Rhyming is very difficult. When it's bad it often means it has been forced - i.e. the writer is looking for a suitable rhyme instead of following the track of his thoughts.
I'm afraid that most so-called "high art" these days is so high, so far advanced in form from what it once was that it has gotten to be enjoyed by very few: music, poetry, art - all have lost touch with the public. It's a bit like Mathematics, once understood by many but now so difficult it has become only of academic interest, understood by few.
Mathematics will stay like that but there's no reason that poetry should.