I’m setting up next month’s edition of The Grind, in which an intrepid group of poets produces a poem a day for a month and sends it to everyone else in the group.  It’s harrowing, it’s rigorous, it borders on insane, but since the initial group (Matthew Olzmann, Ruba Ahmed, Zena Cardman) did it back in October, it’s become a tradition– it has run continuously since then with a rotating cast of characters.

I traded e-mails with a friend who is finishing up 31 in 31 for July, and has found what many of us have, and what keeps me coming back: the process is liberating, despite all its constraints.  Here’s what I said to her in a moment of clarity:

Well, congratulations on 31 in 31!  It’s no small feat, which you’ve obviously intuited not only from the work itself but from the attrition rate within the group. It’s a worthy and commendable thing that you have carved out the time for your craft, however unpolished those drafts are… And, of course, revision rocks and is the best reason to be a poet.  Think of all the raw work you can now revise.  When this process works, it really works… When you go back to these in a couple months, you will see connections and obsessions that will frighten you and enchant you.  The desperation involved in producing something daily is really instructive.

Most people choose to try it in February, since February only has 28 days, or in April, because it’s NaPoWriMo.  But we’ll go whenever.  If you want in on August, let me know before tomorrow night and I’ll include you in the introductory e-mail.  But remember: the only unforgivable sins are missing a day or dropping out.