Plahm playfully inverts Seal’s iconic phrase, transforming “kiss from a rose” into the compound “Kiss Rose”—a neologism that becomes both noun and verb, gift and giver. The opening stanzas catalog the sensory cascade of romantic awakening: tingling nose, stirred emotions, sparked sensation. But the poem’s real interest lies in the metaphysical question it poses: is this experience private (“only in dreams”) or a “key set free” to unexplored doors? The interrogative structure—question after question—mirrors the uncertainty of new love’s threshold. The middle section’s litany (“To bloom with care? / To burn and yearn? / To know and grow?”) captures the multiple possibilities that romantic catalysis creates. The pivot to “Look in the mirror clear / and see what’s dear” turns the poem’s inquiry inward, suggesting the beloved’s beauty reflects the beholder’s own capacity for love. The closing image—”The spark in the dark / and the flame with no shame”—embraces passion without apology. A sweet, searching meditation on how beauty opens us.

A charming, playful exploration of romantic awakening that succeeds through its central conceit: the “Kiss Rose” as both object and action, gift and genesis. The dense rhyme scheme (rose/nose/glows/flows/knows) creates a hypnotic, almost incantatory quality appropriate to the subject of enchantment. The interrogative structure—so many questions—risks becoming repetitive but ultimately mirrors love’s own uncertainty at the threshold. The poem’s strength lies in its refusal to resolve: it doesn’t answer whether the kiss blooms “in silence, unseen” or opens “a door unexplored,” leaving that discovery to reader and beloved alike. Some middle stanzas (“To bloom with care? / To burn and yearn?”) feel slightly padded, and the allusion to Seal’s song, while clever, may date the piece. But the closing lines achieve genuine warmth, and the final image—”the flame with no shame”—captures Plahm’s signature blend of romance and self-acceptance.