Poets

I am told that in some junior schools children are told that "poetry need not rhyme" or that "you can write what you like in a poem" or some such rubbish. I have the feeling that some of our so-called important poets have had too great an influence on teachers. A year or so ago I picked up a "book of poetry" - I don't think! - in which none of the poems rhymed, few made much sense though they were full of politically correct material, and none of them possessed any rhythm. They were all prose pieces written in lines with capital letters starting every line (maybe).
There is a person who publishes a magazine who wishes to receive submissions provided they don't rhyme. No good Philip Larkin sending anything then (if he were alive).
There are two poems in the Christmas edition of The Spectator and neither have rhymes. However, one by Wendy Cope does have a certain rhythm; it isn't prose put into lines with capital letters at the beginning of each. The other by none other than our just retired poet laureate, Andrew Motion, is, to my mind, prose put in lines like poetry - with capital letters where they would occur in sentences.
"I was passing, so dropped in
unannounced. It had been a while
and my hand on the lych-gate
fondly remembered deep scars."
That's the first "verse". The rest drones on relentlessly.
George Steiner, in writing a piece on Dylan Thomas, mentioned the lack of meaning in the poems, if memory serves me right. Yes, I agree, but they are still wonderful to listen to because if they are nothing else you know they are poems.