I’m excited to welcome you to the inaugural issue of eche!

There are some beautiful, surprising and thoughtful poems in this issue that I hope resonate.

I thought I would start the issue by telling you a bit of the background of eche. It’s something I’ve thought about doing for a while, but have consistently put on my do-it-later list. This, for me, is an extensive but almost completely conceptual list - very few things on it ever get done later.

I had mentioned this idea to a friend of mine a while ago. I saw him again at Free Verse (an excellent event where I bought too many books and also visited what might be the poshest Waitrose I’ve ever seen) and I said I felt it was time to make it happen - otherwise I would keep putting it off. He asked what my time scales were. I explained my plan was to set up everything when I got home, so I could have a few weeks of submissions and compile the issue over the May half term. He looked enthusiastic but doubtful and probably, rightly so. To give you an idea of scale, this was five weeks ago.

I do have a behaviour pattern, which so far I have not learnt from, whereby I think I can do something in ten minutes, only to find out it actually takes two hours.

I worked out how to build a website, how to make things for social media and I started publicising eche. People started following and visiting the website.

The next phase was a few hours of immediate regret, panic, and impending doom. Why did I ever think this was a good idea? Why couldn’t I have seen the error of my ways before I’d shared it with other human beings? What if no one wanted to submit anything, ever?

Then a few people did start to submit and the beauty of poetry managed to plaster over my self-created neuroses.

It’s been a real privilege that people have shared their work and taken a risk on this new venture. I appreciate the opportunity to read so many great pieces - thank you so much to everyone who took the time to write in. Thank you in particular to the fourteen talented poets who make up this first issue - I hope I’ve done your poems justice.

I know it’s helpful for prospective poets to know what an editor likes. I’m not sure if I know how to give a helpful answer to this. What I can tell you is each of these poems made me think each time I read them. I noticed a different line I loved or a meaning I hadn’t found before. A story in what has been said, and another in what hasn’t been.

I also noticed at least two of the poems contain an excellent pigeon-based image, so there’s always that.

Happy reading,

Rebecca