It's a sad, sad statement about a certain generation that literacy is so devalued. Once upon a time, poetry was what stirred hearts, inspired revolutions, prompted war, created peace, and informed the masses. I am ashamed of the Boomer generation I belong to, if the most positive thing they can think of to say about poetry is that they wouldn't ever see it in Vegas.
Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, ee cummings, et al, would be flooding their graveyards with tears over the loss of appreciation for the spoken word.
It seems to me that more of you should actually pay attention to Thomas:
Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at the close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Instead - you sit in your armchair whining about how words have no value.
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