What is the one unifying aspect to a salad and a poem?

You don't know if it "works" until you do it.  Conceptualizing is a fine & noble activity; however, it doesn't make a salad.  It doesn't write the poem.

Here's Sunday's salad:

a peach cubed
2 kinds of mangoes -- Mexican & honey, cubed
zucchini raw & cubed
almonds
avocado cubed
cherry tomatoes
fresh basil
black pepper
olive oil

You can read Sunday's poem in the next issue of The Bay Times.

Which is another way of saying,  salads and poems share a sublime equality.