Of Pain and Ecstacy

My first sonnet

Ode to Innocence was my first sonnet. It was penned in one of the classes I took from Professor Roberty Miller on Shakespeare at Queens College as a sophomore. Dr. Miller read some of Shakespeare's sonnets to the class and mentioned that writing a sonnet is very challenging. He suggested we try it for ourselves. I immediately began writing this sonnet in my notebook and completed it some 15 minutes later while still listening to and taking part in the class discussion. I never showed it to my old professor as I did it simply for myself. I have written dozens of sonnets since--many lost or thrown away in journals or notebooks that I thought unimportant at the time. Yet it remains my favorite to this day. It is sad in a way that something written on impulse without my full attention and largely to show to myself that it was not as hard to do despite what one of my favorite professors thought is still so meaningful to me these many years later.