[1][2] Eggleton's work has appeared in a multitude of publications in New Zealand and he has released over 18 poetry books (1986–2001) with a variety of publishers, including Penguin.

[6] His collection of poems, The Conch Trumpet (Otago University Press, 2015), won the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for poetry.

Performance Poet David Eggleton, won the TV Arts Documentary prize in the 1997 Qantas Media Awards.

[8] Ian Wedde (in the Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse) describes Eggleton's poem Painting Mount Taranaki as "...inside its history.

"[9] Eggleton's poems are frequently iconoclastic or anti-establishment, using mockery to point out the shortcomings of political and social systems, and when read are delivered at a fast, fluent tempo.