I've been thinking about this a bit. I thinkI may have come up with a solution, but it will take people like @kayclarity to participate if it is going to be successful. Here are the steps:
Ignore the trending poetry, at least don't start there. If they're trending, they most likely don't need your upvote. Plus, as you've already demonstrated, trending does not necessarily make the poem more likely to be good.
Start using new poetry as your starting point. When you find something worthy, upvote, comment, and resteem it.
This is probably the most important part. Whenever you can, create a post with links to your favorite pieces over the last couple of days. This will allow you to again coment on the work and point others to it as well.
Sorry - been travelling the last few days. This is a GREAT protocol for getting a great conversation going and supporting really good writers. I love it. Thank you!