This poem was written by Ian Hamilton Finlay in the end of XX century. It is not a usual poem and belongs to a collection of  visual poems . In such poems words signify according to the way they are written. This poem does not follow the common rules of writing, it is not arranged into lines and does not have figures of speech.

It is made of an only word: "acrobats".

Each letter occupies an entire line, sothat in order to understand the whole word, you have to read crosswise. The poets chose this style to express a  message. Perhaps he wanted to re-create acrobats' gestures. So, as it is difficult for an acrobat to do his acrobatics, it is also complex for the reader to read the poem and unterstand how it is written and structured.

In this work, thepoet hasn't zeroed in on the beauty of acrobats' movements but on their difficulty.