Student poetry: ‘Dear Professor’

Adriana Barker is a creative writing and communication double major and a proud member of the class of 2023. She is currently the Opus poetry editor and an intern with the Visiting Writers Series (VWS). She’s from Fort Worth, Texas, so yes, she does wear cowboy boots while she writes poetry (No, it’s not weird). She is also a photographer. Both her poetry and her photography are often heavily influenced by her Texas roots.

Dear Professor 
(A Petrarchan Sonnet)

I do not like writing sonnets. Their form is outdated, 

their syntax obtuse. Following a rhyme scheme

simply makes me want to scream. 

Sonnets about love I have always rated 

a 0/10. They just make me frustrated! 

I have no true love, no blue-eyed dream, 

nothing to cherish except chocolate ice cream. 

Being told to write a sonnet makes me thoroughly deflated. 

Iambic pentameter? Who cares? Who can tell? 

Petrarch and Shakespeare aren’t here to read it. 

Pick an octave or a quatrain. Please no! I yell. 

Teachers beg me to not throw a fit. 

Finally I give in and stop raising hell,

and for homework this sonnet I guess I’ll submit.