Why write poetry?

At Miriam's kitchen in DC (an eatery for the homeless and poor), I've dropped in upon occasion (when I have time or have nothing to do at that moment) on an on-going writing group that meets at one or two tables, about 5 people, in the morning after breakfast and continues on in the afternoon an hour before dinnertime.  Most poetry these folks write seems really prose structured on paper to look like a poem.  I've  copied their "free-verse!"

Anyway, I'm developing a fascination for this type of poetry (such as it is).  The class reads a poem selected by someone designated the class teacher, and everybody responds to the reading, as stimulation is wont upon them, by extending into their own mental worlds, pen in hand for a recording.

What flows hence is astounding: only by stretch of the imagination related to what they heard, but somehow found relevant by juxtaposition to a poetic rendition of something or other on a printed page.

Here are samples from my scribblings as responses to what I had heard just before I took
 pen-in-hand.

1,  Why Did It Happen?    
There has to be a reason.   
Events just don't occur.   
You bake a cake the way you did because you followed a recipe.
The light flickers in a candle because the wind blew it.
The car bashed another because the latter was in the way of the former.
So, why do I love you?
For no reason; making up a reason would be silly.  It's my hormones' at work in unpredictable fashion!

2.  What Makes Me Interesting
I'm an interesting person.  Yes, I am.  I know you'll agree
--once you learn of my exploits in steering planets to a different course;
--hear of the ludicrous methods I've deployed to significantly increase my net worth;
--prove to women that I'm the real 'Casanova'; not some cheap snake-charmer! biting my victims with my own brand of love potion.

So, why do you find 'interesting?'  Darling, remember:  Be kind!

P.S. There's a class in creative painting at the same times morning and afternoon, that I could have joined.

3.  An addition 3/12/2018.  Just in recent sessions, we've come to discern that making poetry has a social effect: namely, it can be designed and offered to a non-discerning public as an uplifting, expressive art form.  The readers of poetry, that is to say, can derive a spurt of uplift-shock that makes life more interesting and worthwhile.  Nobody wants to read a poem that is depressing and un-inspiring but just about everybody welcomes the chance to absorb the nuances of a poem that makes us feel good about ourselves and our environment.