I realize the plot points idea is thinking outside the box a little bit. The key is to think of each piece in terms of movements. Why do you have a line break where you have it? Why should your stanza end where it ends? If you think of those as “plot points” or turns in the road, if you will, then it makes sense.

Plot might not be the best word, but it fits in the sense that when you chart a course for your travels you “plot” your turns and rest stops. That’s what I’m suggesting you should do with your poems, even the “philosophical” or esoteric ones that have no story to tell in the traditional sense. You can always point, or should be able to, in every poem where the train of thought takes you in a new direction or the movement changes from one idea to another. You can call those plot points.

Another word that I think might apply is “schematic anchor.” If you think of a poem’s plan as a schematic, or a scheme, then it should be anchored in certain points throughout that take the reader from one benchmark to another. It’s a method that I’ve devised for crafting a poem to keep it moving where I want it to go.