Millions more know at least a few poems, perhaps first heard at school, which mean a great deal to them. Poems are concise - they can easily be made accessible through posters, bookmarks and projects like the hugely successful Poems on the Underground. Most poets these days are accomplished readers of their work with a growing audience for poetry readings and performances. There's a huge national network of groups, small magazines and publishers, festivals and venues. There's a wide diversity of poets writing and performing today, people of all backgrounds and styles producing work which can be moving, intellectually brilliant or raucously hilarious.
Poetry deals with language, structure, voice and meaning - the essentials of literature.
Poetry makes words count for something. In the modern world we are deluged with words, sold to us and beamed at us from all directions. To read one individual's perception of the world, a carefully crafted construction of intellect and imagination is a wonderful thing. It can be displayed easily. With a novel you can only display book jackets and snippets - you can display the whole of a poem.