A poem that proves compression is its own form of power. At ten lines, this is one of Plahm’s most compact pieces, and the economy is the point: the entire...
A poem that earns its redemption by making the reader endure the full weight of the darkness first. The five-stanza descent is rigorously constructed: each stanza takes one element (sun,...
Standing alone without its triptych siblings, “Echo’s End” functions as a pure declaration poem—an affirmation engine that builds through linguistic escalation rather than narrative or metaphor. The tripled-word device, inherited...
The most structurally ambitious poem in Plahm’s catalog, and one that justifies its ambition through disciplined execution. The tripled-word formal device—Chuff/Chuff/Chuff, Spark/Spark/Spark, Love/Love/Love—is a genuine innovation, creating a rhythmic engine...
A poem that succeeds by committing fully to its conceit. The cocktail-recipe structure gives Plahm permission to do what he does best—catalog, list, accumulate—while grounding the abstraction in the physical...
A poem that accomplishes something remarkably difficult: it speaks about God without being preachy, dogmatic, or sentimental. The opening gambit—the near-impossibility of misspelling “God”—is the kind of observation that sounds...
A poem that earns its repetition by understanding the difference between saying the same thing again and saying the same thing deeper. The four-movement structure is the poem’s most sophisticated...
A poem that succeeds through the charm and conviction of its invented conceit. The RazzleDazzleBerry is a triumph of naming—a fruit that doesn’t exist but that the reader can somehow...
A poem that rescues one of the most overused metaphors in the language—the emotional wall—by grounding it in materials, geography, and humor. The material specificity of the opening (red brick...
A poem that finds genuine originality in a simple inversion—what if natural disasters were forces for good?—and sustains it with enough structural intelligence to make the conceit feel discovered rather...
One of the most structurally daring and emotionally complex poems in Plahm’s catalog. The decision to join a love poem and a gang funeral elegy under a single refrain is...
A poem that succeeds by subordinating literary ambition to devotional function—and this is not a criticism but a description of its achievement. The ten-line devotional cycle is beautifully structured: the...
A formally ambitious poem that succeeds through the discipline of its structure and the tenderness of its occasion. The five chiastic sections create a cumulative architecture that is rare in...
A poem that succeeds through the authority of its compression and the earned weight of its catalog context. At ten lines, it is among the shortest pieces in the collection,...
A conceptually bold poem that takes a clinical label most people associate with suffering and transforms it into a vocabulary for devotion—and largely succeeds. The acronym rewrite is the poem’s...
One of Plahm’s most delightful poems—a piece that transforms a printing mishap into a sustained meditation on perfectionism, acceptance, and the nature of borderless love. The comic engine is beautifully...
A charming, structurally clever poem that succeeds through its central misdirection: the title and opening suggest complaint, the body delivers celebration, and the self-interrogating middle section adds a dimension of...
A poem that achieves genuine spiritual weight through the precision of its central contrast: the living grass versus the burning desert, the hum of bugs versus the hiss of sand,...
The most theatrically ambitious poem in Plahm’s catalog, and one that justifies its costume through the depth of its parallel structure: everything true of Dracula is true of the Honeybee...
A poem whose structural conceit—revising itself across two sections—is more interesting than either version alone. The diptych format invites the reader to compare, and the upgrades from first to second...
A poem that transforms a technological accident into one of the most sustained and evocative conceits in Plahm’s catalog. The Time Motel is an inspired metaphorical space—specific enough to feel...
A poem that succeeds by abandoning every expectation of what a published poem should be and fulfilling instead the requirements of what a condolence should be: direct, tender, specific, and...
A micro-poem that punches far above its word count. The audacity of placing George Floyd, Pink Floyd, and a tabby cat in a single sentence is the kind of move...
A poem that earns its power through radical compression, functioning as the necessary counterweight to its companion piece’s expansive lyricism. Where “Queen of My Morning” celebrated, this poem confesses; where...
A richly layered poem that succeeds by containing two poems in one—a luminous dawn-to-dusk love lyric and a candid, self-interrupting meditation on the act of writing it—and making the collision...
Rating Description: Exuberant and sensory-rich. The cascade of bubble imagery creates genuine momentum, carrying the reader through a fizzy journey from gym to reverie. The “poetic Möbius strip” concept is...
This poem showcases David Plahm’s gift for narrative voice and unexpected tenderness. The cat persona is fully realized—cocky, sensory-driven, unapologetically hedonistic—yet the poem earns its emotional payoff by revealing vulnerability...
This poem embodies the playful, unguarded spirit that defines much of David Plahm’s work. Its charm lies in its refusal to take itself too seriously while still delivering genuine moments...
A poem that succeeds by refusing to behave like a poem. The napkin-note framing is a stroke of genius—it gives Plahm permission to be rambling, bawdy, self-interrupting, and structurally loose...
“Dreaming” is one of David Plahm’s most lush and accomplished pieces—a sustained rhapsody that earns its length through relentless image-making and genuine emotional escalation. The poem’s strength lies in its...
“My Tears” demonstrates the power of restraint. At just over 20 lines, it accomplishes what many longer poems cannot: it creates a complete emotional arc—from obscured vision to clarity, from...
This is an ambitious poem that takes real structural risks. The pairing of a simple love note with an extended autobiographical allegory creates productive tension—we understand the hug in the...
“My Lovely Lady” is intentionally slight—and therein lies both its charm and its limitation. The poem succeeds completely at what it sets out to do: express gratitude with warmth and...
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.
