Poet­ry can be thought of as an act of per­sua­sion: a poem attempts to bring about some kind of change in its read­er, per­haps no more than a moment of clar­i­ty amidst the dis­or­der of every­day life. And suc­cess­ful poems not only make use of the mean­ings and sounds of words, as well as the images those words con­jure up, but may also take advan­tage of the arrange­ment of type on a page. Notice how this lit­tle poem by Mis­sis­sip­pi poet Robert West makes the very best use of the emp­ty space around it to help con­vey the nature of its subject.