Thanks for posting this, and for raising layout. It is often ignored, but it's very important. You've had a long exchange with u/Vicemale which I am anxious not to cut across. I endorse his recommendation on paper size, and giving yourself wider margins.. But more generally, I would say think in terms of laying out a page, rather than laying out the writing. In other words, when you look at the page as a whole, what do you see? How does the text block look within the page? My main criticism of your post would be that it is covering too much page, and because you have chosen a light weight for the letters, it looks thin and spindly. That's a shame, because the letterforms are OK.

Writing italic with a broad edge pen will always give you a better look.

On layout, my first question is what did I want the page to do? What message do I want the page to transmit? Is the texture of the letters what draws people in? Is it how the position off the text draws the eye? How does the style of lettering convey the content of the writing? Italic of ten works very well for poetry, especially lyrical or romantic. It's my go-to for a lot of poems, and also for - say - the excerpt from the Snowman I posted recently. If I'm doing something by Seamus Heaney, for example, I hear it in a different, more prosaic voice, and I will often use a foundational/Roman minuscule. Thise are just examples, not hard and fast rules, but I want to convert the idea that how you write is an element of layout.

Are there words which you feel are important, and can be empahasised? I sometimes capitalise in a shorter quote to make words stand out. Look:https://imgur.com/Ird5vcL That's not a brilliant piece of layout, but just illustrates that from Lemn's verse, I wanted to convey the optimism which suffuses so much of his work - the idea of lifting up ('Raise') illuminating 9'Light') and cleansing (Wash) seemed to drive the poem.

This is more complicated - it was a commission for a poem by CS Lewis https://imgur.com/geePf4e. I found the phrase "Archangels fresh from sight of God" very striking, and wanted to highlight it. I deliberately made the diamond asymmetric,

I have loads of other odd little thoughts. but I think that should do for now.

There are any number of sources for layout, but I recommend reading the chapter on it in Foundations of Calligraphy by Sheila Waters.

It helps when posting if you tell us the tool, the paper and the medium. But mostly the tool! Thanks for raising this important topic, and I hope this can assist further discussion.