reasons to comment.

You can justify it
a couple of ways.

You can use a base of accurate,
clear-sighted well-wrought praise

to cover for the urgently-needy
need of a trenchant, or piquant or lucid
point of critique,

or two,

or more. Or:

the converse is good, as well!

Whichever works best for you,
by all means: indulge

in letting it out.
It may be just what

they never knew,
they wouldn't have thought,
or some other surprise

that removes from them
any irksome or painful kernel
of doubt they have lodged
in their teeth,

as to whether or what
they've done's worth
noticing.

- surprise

is the small, hard seed
that grows to hope.

And it's also the key,

but there isn't a door, in this case.
I should draw this now to a close,
before mixed metaphor

is acquired by taste.

But the point is, whatever you say

they will know that you cared enough

to risk egg on your face.