A poem that achieves maximum compression: twelve lines, zero waste. The title carries genuine intellectual weight, marrying an idiomatic cliché to a physics concept in a way that makes both...
The catalog’s most ambitious comic-erotic poem, and one of its most successful sustained performances. The three-act structure—kitchen catastrophe, grill apotheosis, erotic dessert—gives the poem genuine narrative architecture, and the transition...
A charming, unpretentious song-lyric that succeeds entirely on voice, rhythm, and the warmth of its invented vocabulary. “The feelies” as a coinage is genuinely good—it sounds natural, fills a real...
A clean, well-executed micro-poem that achieves genuine compression and lets a single metaphor do sustained work. The ocean-as-life, moon-as-Muse conceit is mapped with care: “senseless” carries a productive double meaning,...
A structurally ambitious two-act poem that uses a single word—”Guilty”—as both percussion instrument and emotional thesis, building through repetition toward a confession that earns its simplicity. Act I’s stacking technique...
A structurally elegant poem that earns its wisdom through careful construction rather than mere declaration. The symmetrical opening—hate as mist versus love as roots—is both memorable and philosophically sound, giving...
A warm, inclusive poem that succeeds through its generosity of spirit rather than technical fireworks. Plahm’s decision to honor the childless on Mother’s Day is both socially perceptive and emotionally...
A deeply personal poem that earns its emotional payoff through honesty rather than polish. The “old farts” self-identification is a masterstroke of tone—it simultaneously claims and undercuts authority, making the...
A compelling poem driven by a single idea executed with escalating intensity. The “If I gave you…” structure creates addictive momentum—each new tool offered raises the stakes and strips away...
A delightful poem that proves attraction poetry doesn’t need to be heavy to be effective. The “little devil” conceit gives Plahm a vehicle for cataloging the body’s involuntary responses to...
An ambitious triptych that succeeds most powerfully in its central movement. The “Let It Pour” sequence is the poem’s crown jewel—the ascending parallel structure (silver/gold/love/God’s love) creates genuine rhetorical momentum,...
One of Plahm’s funniest and most disarmingly wise poems. The comic observations are specific enough to feel lived-in rather than invented—the dog crunching cheap cookies, the cat shredding the couch,...
An emotionally ambitious poem that earns its epic scope through raw honesty. The triptych structure gives the piece genuine dramatic architecture—devastation, rescue, renewal—and the labeled sub-sections in the first panel...
A seductive, structurally inventive poem that finds its power in what it refuses to resolve. The gelato conceit is inspired—frozen, decadent, untouched—and Plahm milks it without over-explaining, letting the metaphor...
A miniature that achieves disproportionate emotional impact through radical compression. Every word earns its place—there is nothing extraneous, nothing decorative, nothing that could be cut without loss. The poem’s movement...
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.
