why would a poet not capitalize his poem? also why would a poet not break the poem down into stanza?

I've seen that. I'm insulted by it. writing a poem so that it is more difficult to hear (in mind), more difficult to read aloud (in a cold reading) is frickin' HOSTILITY against the reader.

So I usually take such presentation, but the lack of a stanza'd formatting isn't necessarily hostile.

For instance,
we might see something like this,
that takes the reader along,
from line to line.

But it's not really
stanzified that way, is it?

The capitalization thing? I have no firm opinion on that.

Poetry is supposed to be a form of art and expression.
People can take liberties unless they enter a contest
with strict guidelines.

Are we forced to choose
to Capitalize our Not to Capitalize
that is the question

Who is it that makes the choices ?
Life is to short for vanity
to short for perfection
I no that no single choice
is ever the right one .

e.e.cummings

e.e. cummings and Don Marquez did not capitalize their poems. "All in Green Went My Love Riding" and "Archie and Mahetabel" are not capitalized, the former as innovation and the latter because the cockroach writing the poem was too light to press the shift key of the ol' manual typewrite it was written on. If you look at older books of poetry, the English romantics and early American poets, printers frequently cram two columns of verse on a page - nowadays the publication quality of the "Big Book of Jumbles" puzzle book vastly exceeds the volumes once produced en mass of poetry. Perhaps an elimination of stave breaks parodies this injustice.