Escape Artist

Sridala Swami

Aleph Book Company

88 pages, Rs. 195

This is the Hyderabad-based poet’s second collection, following her 2007 work A Reluctant Survivor. Escape Artist covers a plethora of subjects, and displays a great variety of verse styles. Swami also experiments with spacing to change the flow, pace and feel of each poem. At the core of Escape Artist is a visceral awareness of what words can do: induce “temporary insanity,” voice “inaudible stories,” and remind us that “the measure of love is not loss but residue.”