In the spring of 2023, when the three of us began working on this project, it was truly a feat to predict where everything would land. Much like the season of our inception, the world was a study in inflorescence. We have yet to—and may never—recover from the global pandemic, or the Ukrainian war, or the Canadian wildfires. But the health of a plant is as much a matter of the roots as it is of the soil. All that happens now can be traced back to one or more locus of origin. And this, this particular historiography, has become the foundation of our inaugural enterprise. In this issue, our twenty contributing poets decide what exactly that word means to them: trace. Some of our pages dedicate themselves to significant recent events, and others to fragments of history visible in the present. Each author is of a unique demographic: in age, in nationality, in experience. As editors, we are so proud of the diversity of voices this journal is now privileged to contain. But, dear reader, know that this is only a stanza. The first of many.