slip out

To escape but not end, the poem left the back door open.

not supposed to be there

A sneaky, chameleon-like line that hid itself in the poem and evaded cross-out.

first 4-8

By the first 4 to 8 lines the reader will be either all-in or will be looking for that exit line that lets him/her out.

escape artist

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini.

— Paul Muldoon, The Irish Times, 19 April 2003

pass in silence

The message of that passage was that you could read the words a thousand times and still it would escape you.

escape poem

Who knows what poem will escape into the world and be known?

narrowed to error

Constraints are both opportunities for escape and discovery and pinch points where many forced errors occur.

trapdoor word

Just when he thought he’d painted himself into a corner with his style, he found an unexpected word, and through that trapdoor he escaped.

meaning grounded

The poet imagines he can escape the realm of the semantic.

escape literature

Poetry always trying to slip the grasp of literature.

escape passage

Poem as escape passage from the din and flash of spatio-temporal reality