Who writes sonnets anymore?

The other day (actually, I think it was yesterday), I caught "The Writer's Almanac" on NPR.  Garrison Keillor read one of Shakespeare's sonnets.  Now, I'm not really into poetry.  I don't understand it and I don't find it groovy and I just don't get it.  That said, I like to hear Billy Collins read his stuff, and I always read Calvin Trillin's deadline poet bit in the Nation.

Every now and then there's a contest or a movement or whatever to submit Haiku on some subject or other and they're always a riot.  I even have a Haiku as my answering machine message.  So why Haiku and not Mark McMorris or Robert Bly?  I think it's the structure.  A Haiku is, must be, 3 lines, with 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively.  That's like a puzzle to write and I think I appreciate it like I can appreciate a crystal.  Like I said, I don't get poetry.  I get structure.

So that brings me to sonnets.  Does anyone write them anymore?  I mean, if they're good enough for Shakespeare, surely even the snobbiest would-be poet can lower him or herself to use the form, no?  I guess not.  As I understand it, a sonnet has 14 lines of 10 syllables each.  Furthermore (and here's the out-of-fashion part) it has a rhyming scheme.  Imagine!  The last 2 lines rhyme.  The other 12 lines are divided in to 4-line quatrains (that means "4 lines") .  Each quatrain can rhyme "a-b-a-b" or "a-b-b-a".  OK, sounds simple enough.

Because we have no guaranteed health care,
I try to stay away from getting sick.
But just in case, I wear clean underwear,
And always cross the public streets real quick.

The politicians try to sound so sweet,
And make us trust the goals of government.
But what with groceries and gas and rent,
It costs too much to credence their deceit.

When a costly medical procedure
Is needed , I around don't want to fool.
But with two aspirin and a drink, cool,
I can forebear awhile and so demur.

May god forbid, should I need surgery,
I may be forced to commit perjury.