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I was wondering the why behind line breaks.  If poetry is to be read according to punctuation and not the line breaks, and on top of that it's free verse, so it doesn't need to be in lines with x amount of syllables with the stress falling on the y syllable, why not make longer lines?

Strange, but after I started questioning this, a poem by Wallace Stevens, A Red Man Reading (or something close to that) was passed out in class, and it has the longer lines that reflect almost-sentences. 

Is part of it that a two-line poem wouldn't be accepted as a poem?  

What am I not understanding about poetry that a two-sentence poem shouldn't be structured as such?

Thanks,

Donna

The simple answer to your question is artistic licence.  A poet breaks up his or her poetry however he or she would like.  Some write in free verse and some in strict form.  I'll tell you one thing, though, if you wrote about a particular free verse poem and quoted the lines together without breaking them, that author would consider the poem to be butchered!  There's a reason for every break, even if it's just "because I'm the author, and I wanted to put a break there"!  : )  Just respect the poet and don't always attempt to figure out the reasoning.  : )