As an actual person who read the whole book in the original olde Chinese at the easily distracted age of 11 or so I assure you one can easily skip over all the poems, even the ones in the chapter where Monk gets abducted by a bunch of tree spirits and they spend the night composing poetry. (Yeah, that wasn't a very popular episode.) But sometimes the poems are fun. Like when they get SEXY.

Also I think there's a number of cool stories that probably get cut out of abridged versions. It's pretty easy to just skip ahead a few poems or to the next chapter if you come across something boring while reading unabridged. Like Monk's origin story. I've NEVER read that one all the way through.

Also I think that you're probably better off reading it in English than Japanese because there are a lot of deep/obscure/punny things that need explanation and I think you'll appreciate (need) the added comprehension even if you miss out on a few cultural translations. Also I assure you that the English translation in the link you posted may look tedious, but it's almost equally haughty and laborious in olde Chinese from a modern speaker point of view. It gets more fun when they are fighting monsters trust me.

Goddamn now I want to read it again even though have SO many better essential-er things to do.