/lit/ - Literature

What's the point of poetry?

>hur durr i make a rhyme
Why is poetry and poetry writers so retarded /lit/

How do I get into poetry? What should I read first? Should I start with modern stuff or classical stuff?

Is there a /lit/ infographic on what classic poetry I should read? Should I start with the Greeks?

I'm new to poetry and know nothing, but I've read the illiad, Odyessy, Gita, Gilgamesh, and the whole western Canon.

How do I into poetry?

need some constructive criticism
heres a poem i wrote:

this morning I woke up and made a cup of coffee
it was very black and bitter and too hot
I burned the roof of my mouth when I took a sip
I took a shower
the water was too hot and I burned my skin
I got in my car and drove to school and got flipped off by another driver
this made me angry so i fantasized pulling the desert eagle I keep in my glove compartment out and flashing it at the guy but I did not because I was afraid he would call my bluff and pull out a gun and shoot me and I would get killed over road rage and all the people at my funeral would feel
awkward because they know that I died over something so
trivial and useless

I have never given a good God damn about poetry, and I'd like to. I don't think it tends to sound nice or interesting. Admittedly my experience is mostly with pithy modern garbage, so I'm trying to broaden my horizons and "get it."

What am I missing? Where do I read poetry that is beautiful and Interesting, so I can finally understand why I'm supposed to enjoy whatever Robert Frost has to say about sunsets?

Care to critique my poem? It's my first one. My english teacher says it's good enough for our school's literary journal. I was influenced by Robert Frost and Edgar Allan Poe (he wrote poems too you know, not just stories) while writing this. Be gentle. Thanks.

I thought I was smart, I thought I was right
I thought it better not to fight, I thought there was a
Virtue in always being cool, so when it came time to
Fight I thought I'll just step aside and that the time would
Prove you wrong and that you would be the fool

I don't know where the sun beams end and the star
Lights begins it's all a mystery

Oh to fight is to defend if it's not
Now than tell me when would be the time that you would stand up
And be a man, for to lose I could accept but to surrender
I just wept and regretted this moment, oh that I, I
Was the fool

I don't know where the sun beams end and the star
Lights begins it's all a mystery
And I don't know how a man decides what right for his
Own life, it's all a mystery

How do I into poetry?

Am I autistic if I don't know how to read poems that don't use punctuation? I just can't deal with it. I never know where one thought ends and another begins. When I read poetry I can never tell if the line breaks are meant to signify the end of a clause or not.