Saloni Kaul’s Sonnets

Saloni Kaul
October 2021

THOUGHTS ALL FORTHRIGHT

How many times do we seek so at the highest
Their thoughts opinions on matters of our concern
As though age or position makes them much the wisest,
Able to take stands, magically matters discern.
From others we derive constructive counsel,
Deliberate, ruminate over, as we ought,
Keen as lover from charming damsel, Gretel from Hansel,
And oft reach tame consensus on that second thought.
In keeping with their status high they shape the state
Of mind; heedful advertent, us all they alert,
Inadvertently, they climb at accelerated rate
And many a guarded secret we readily blurt.
Involunt’ry voluntary through our mind they stream,
So Yamini we think forthright and so we dream.

TALK ALL TRANSFORMING

Those obstacles that our paths do harrass,
At each turn rise of newest plot contrive,
Bring in line, override tactics crude crass
And from the whole only pleasure derive.
Bend with your charm and subjugate with will drastic
Even hard fast rules from Sydney to Perth;
Stretch them like plastic, rubberbands elastic,
As skirts of dresses all do with their girth.
Then that toughness excruciatingly thriving,
Transformed, to your advantage most immediate,
Sees you enlivened, rejuvenated, jiving ,
Flaunting your newfound mirth at times sedate.
Sweet talk all your opponents till they all calm
And have them eating straight out of your palms.

RIGHT STANCE

While even those most honest and sincere mask facts,
The rarer the medium, the inroad’s denser;
Like near or far presence of tactical weaponry pacts
Only detectable by all-function radar’s staunchest sensor.
There’s little point in being all action and vigour,
Aggressive in attitude like some bumptious few,
Quite ignorant of facing strength of bulwark or bunker.
If only thought strategic would come to their rescue!
Slender looking webs so deceive like elections they rig,
Are downright coarse when it comes to the crunch.
They’re capable of holding captive creatures big.
If suspicious do not enter, rely on your old hunch!
Avoid all confrontations, then put up a fight
Only in the event your stand is right !

SOLIDLY SO

All through life we’re riddled with extremes keen
Like towering highs and touching rock bottom
That render complicated thriving in between
If we take them to heart, like birthdays, eggs rotten.
The heights of bliss can be attained unsuspected ,
Bliss comes within reach, those heights all respected,
By the one least dazzled by diadem ,
Like windfalls at your door, salt lake deposits unexpected
In joyous mounds when you least count on them.
Plumbing the depths sounds cruel, masochistic,
Occasioned for catharsis (if you care an ounce),
Like ball hurtling downwards rapidly realistic
Needs solid base terra firma off which it can up bounce.
So all along be totally true to yourself ,
Neither in awe of heaven, nor in fear of hell.

DISCERNING

Speaking up for others is grand, worthy and noble,
Indeed high public speaking in itself is quite an art!
How they in taking the part of others, feat or foible,
Wheedle, cajole, aim to convince heart or tilt cart!
Performers actors have so long identified most strong
With character they so endeavour to depict,
Empathising wholesome total in right or wrong,
Forgetting selves living parts like one mouthing edicts.
Bear that in mind when you evaluate that worth
Of spokesman that reels off virtues, icing the cake.
If he does so as though it’s all his job on earth,
Make it yours to tell true speech from false fake.
Too big for his boots, spearheading the deal,
A spokesman could be but a spoke in the large wheel.

SPRUCE UP

Rewards do come from being neat and tidy,
That big spring cleaning when you simply tidy up,
Instant as that tidy sum that’s for you ready,
Or you make clean net gains sturdy as horse’s stirrup.
Garden substantial neat and tidy, well maintained,
Like picture-perfect towns, books trim as steaks crumbed,
Traditionally have always been to countries likened
Where system, order and beauty is rule of thumb.
As hedges trimmed, lawns weeded mowed, flowerbed
Etched, shaped, stretched out varied vast as your dreams allow,
So books on shelves, papers in desk stapled or clipped,
Clothes in cupboards/closets, shoes on shoe rack take a bow!
Heed this, if poet’s loud entreaties are to no avail,
In short, ‘Tidy Your Room’, let Mom’s word instantly prevail!

CLAIMS ALL ON

To get something we want some of the time
Is alright, like extracting treasures, mining gold from mine,
That adds to the occasion’s glamour, value prime,
Because of its prize rarity and qualities classed fine.
But to expect to reap procure everything we aim for,
All of the time for days on end all at a height
Is quite absurd, like milking cow lifelong at your back door,
Extending forever above correctness our birthright.
But to get nothing none of the time, like jinx plain,
Especially when you’re highly deserving of a win ,
Is out of the question, to be treated with sheer disdain,
Simply not going to be any longer on.
When told off once, bear with it, await turn for fame!
If pushed unfairly to that one extreme, then stake your claim.

ON TIPTOES

Loud blabbermouths spout unkind things without e’en meaning to
And you would do well not to take it all to heart.
Compulsive talkers talk their heads off till they so strain fatigue you
But they themselves stay fresh lark-chirpy playing their part.
Beware the one that tries to win you over willynilly
Going on as though his honour’s at stake
And salesman’s suave polished tones far from wobbly wibbly
That without so much as a twinge sell as ready the halfbake.
While it is good to be open spontaneous, like at booth well-manned,
It being awkward to measure each uttered word;
For conversation sounds stilted when thought, preplanned,
Its beauty lies in the flow’s own twists and turns blurred.
Still, be always right, seldom hurt with careless blathering,
Thoughts clear thought out are preferable to blabbering.
Tiptoe through talk forthright, treat kind the wayside sprig.
Beating about the bush harshly only damages each twig.

WISELY ON EACH SEASON

Advice comes from the most unlikely quarters terse.
Heed it only when you’ve assessed all inputs fed!
Balaam who was all out to hurl a curse
Soon changed his mind, issued a blessing kind instead;
Making sense of sparse wellbred words of wisdom
Spouting from none other than his donkey heehawing.
You, your concerns keen practical, sans animal kingdoms,
Would do well to spot betterdressed speechfounts less cowtowing.
Should gracious noble hands hand you on salvers gifts,
Method toughest, whereas roughmannered’s ways easy;
May you your options with subtle measured proportion sift,
Choose wisely what’s tailored to suit, dry wit or greasy.
When auspicious-suspect vie for hand of reason,
Season your temperament to best suit the season.

SOLE COLLECTION

Wild flurries of impressions whizzing by like delegates,
Soak in, mind drinks in potent emotion for two.
How these all knit themselves together in neat aggregates,
Where when and how, but penetrating somehow they all do!
With all the additives, accumulations,
These weigh one down, heavy on scale as a collection’s reach;
Message burdens aimed, meant oblique, like compilations,
Take on sense of their own, above intent of each.
Like wise man lets go of emotional residues
To then elaborate chart of man’s role, his fate,
Like lover and loved one pile up emotions’ cues
Till moment’s right their love explicitly to state.
Such is life’s rhythm, like love’s playful tease.
Each sole collection’s patterned so only to seek release.

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