The issue that you’re about to delve into is an incredibly special one, and something that we, at Ayaskala, haven’t ever done before. It’s a curation of the poems a group of women wrote as a part of our first Poetry Writing Retreat.

The poems you’ll read in this issue were conceived in two days. These women gathered from all across the country to experience what I was curating.

Some of them were looking for a break from the city. Some wanted to get back to writing. Some had never published a word. Some wanted to escape the creative block they had been experiencing. But all had a common thread that pulled them to this retreat - the desire to create.