Escapeful, by Lea Graham

Lea Graham is the author of the forthcoming, From the Hotel Vernon (Salmon
Press, 2019); the chapbook, This End of the World: Notes to Robert Kroetsch (Apt.
9 Press, 2016) and Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You (No Tell Books,
2011). She is an associate professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

About the poem:

“Escapeful” comes out of my manuscript in-progress, The O. E. D. Odes. The poem
uses the dictionary entry form and explores the word through sound, denotation
and my own connotations. The use of this form was inspired by A. Van Jordan’s
book, M*A*C*N*O*L*I*A, a book about spelling bees and racial injustice. While
“Escapeful” is autobiographical in its yearnings to adventure, Bonnie and Clyde were
serendipitously discovered when I began to research the town I lived in.