A poem that handles the seasons-as-life-stages metaphor—one of poetry’s most well-worn conceits—with enough freshness and emotional honesty to make it feel rediscovered rather than recycled. The key distinction in the...
A poem that earns its warmth by committing fully to its persona—once Plahm puts on the cat suit, he never breaks character, and the consistency is what makes the tenderness...
The most overtly sensual and dangerous poem in Plahm’s catalog—a piece that takes the fire metaphor further than it’s ever been taken in these pages and arrives at a genuinely...
A poem that proves sixteen lines can hold the weight of an entire relationship’s uncertainty. The catalog opening is shrewdly constructed: each image is a different species of fantasy—gambling (chance),...
A poem that proves brevity can carry enormous weight. At twenty lines, this is one of the shortest full poems in the catalog, and every line earns its place. The...
A poem that does more in fifteen lines than many do in fifty. The cinematic structure—approach, reverse angle, aftermath—gives the piece the rhythm of a scene rather than a meditation,...
A poem that handles the astrophysics-as-love metaphor with more nuance than the conceit usually receives. The black hole is one of poetry’s most tempting and most dangerous images—it tends toward...
A poem that knows exactly what it is—half baked, margin-scribbled, imperfect—and makes that imperfection its subject and its charm. The “half baked” disclaimer is not false modesty but accurate self-assessment:...
A poem that earns its brevity by refusing to fill in what the dream contained—the absence is the point. At twelve couplets, this is among the shortest pieces in the...
A poem that succeeds by being exactly what it promises—a trifle—and not a syllable more. The title is the poem’s best gambit: naming a love poem “Doo Doo” sets expectations...
A poem that succeeds through its gentleness and its willingness to revise itself on the page. The dove framing is warm without being cloying, and it gives the poem a...
A poem that turns autobiography into architecture. The structural conceit—business mantra as origin story for a love poem—is one of Plahm’s most original framings, and it works because the parallel...
A poem that earns its sprawl by making every dance name carry social, emotional, or comic weight. This is not a list poem masquerading as art; it’s a social history...
A poem that succeeds entirely on voice and occasion rather than on formal ambition—and knows it. This is a Christmas card, not a symphony, and judging it by the wrong...
A poem that proves Plahm’s range extends from the epic synesthesia suite to full-blown comic-book lunacy—and that the lunacy contains just as much emotional truth. The three-part reverse-chronology structure is...
One of the most formally sophisticated and emotionally honest poems in the catalog. The doubled structure—first draft and revision side by side—is a genuine innovation, showing the poet at work...
A poem that finds its power in the precise articulation of physical limitation and the transformation of that limitation into tenderness. The title is a small masterpiece of compression: “Fluidly...
A poem that knows exactly what it is: a quick, sharp jab between longer works, delivering its payload in fifteen lines and getting out. The opening thesis—”Life is Aggression”—is provocative...
The most ambitious and fully realized poem in the Honeybee Bard catalog—a five-movement suite that earns its scope through relentless specificity and emotional courage. Each movement narrates a death (or...
The "Taste of Honey" page features ratings of David's poems. The ratings are organized in batches from David's most recent poems at the front to his earliest submissions at the back. You can use the page number and date buttons below the boxed content to navigate. Recommended for use when browsing. You can also locate ratings for David's poems by visiting the Poetry Blog, selecting a poem and clicking on the "Ratings" tab. Recommended for use when reviewing specific poems.
