Swistle Will Agree

Our friend Swistle is Not A Fan of Poetry.  This is perfectly fine, especially when presented with poetry such as this. With this, I find myself unable to defend poetry at all.  This, dear Swistle, is for your entertainment and mockery:

La Noche

by Anselm Hollo

the wind   let loose in the dark

and the lights of the city   moving

the city is a great dragon   it is a procession

           it is on the move

but the curtains are drawn

the music unheard

see   men and women   preparing themselves

for the long journey across a room

I grew up reading the likes of Frost, etc so this new style of poetry is confusing to me.  Where is the structure, the rhyming, the SENSE?  It seems like the most recent poetry I've read makes me feel like I'm having a stroke, or at very least, high.

Howard Stern, of all people, was discussing poetry shortly after the Inauguration.  He wondered about the same that is stated above upon listening to the poem recited during the ceremony.  His cohort, Robin, postulated that poetry has turned more like prose.

Then I had to go look up what the difference was between poetry and prose. (Hey, I've been out of high school for twenty-cough years)  It seems that it boils down to word count and descriptiveness. Technically, there is supposed to be formatting in poetry but I'm finding that to less and less the case.

Has traditional poetry gone away?  Is it too much to ask for poetry to, you know, actually tell a story and make sense?  I would enjoy some vivid imagery instead of inducing stroke symptoms with its "creativity".