Poetry with a Side of Political Activism

The poetry reading given by Mark Nowak on April 24, 2009 at Prairie Lights focused mainly on his new book Coal Mountain Elementary.  This book included poems and pictures of coal miners in West Virginia and China.  Many of the topics zoned in on the continuous problems, accidents, and danger the miners encounter on a daily basis.  The pictures in the book were presented via slideshow during the reading, creating visual interest in addition to the traditional audio pleasure of a reading.  His poems had an easy, talkativeness that made them simple to understand, but still poignant.   

 

I found the combination of these two mediums very moving, especially considering the subject matter.  As Nowak mentioned later in the Q&A section, no other profession excluding the active duty military has a deathwatch like mining does.  Every morning husbands kiss their wives goodbye for what may very well be the last time.  I found this fact very sobering.  Why is mining still necessary?  This was the question Nowak posed to all of us through his reading.  Though he was using the art of poetry, his main goal was to inform the public of the situation miners across the world today find themselves in. 

 

One of the most prominent subjects in his reading, and his book, was the Sago mine catastrophe.  I found myself mildly embarrassed to only have a fuzzy memory of this event.  Twelve miners, who had been reported alive, were actually dead as a result of an explosion in the mine.  One of Nowak’s poems describes this horrific event and what it must have felt like to be one of the family members of those twelve miners. 

 

However, this is only one event that happened three years ago.  Nowak stressed that this happens around the world, nearly on a daily basis.  Miners are still in great danger today, yet, little has changed in these past three years to prevent another disaster like Sago from happening again.  Nowak is working hard to change this fact.  His book discusses these problems; he is actively touring to promote his book, and reading selections from it in forums similar to Prairie Lights.  He also suggested that audience members become involved as well.  His webpage http://coalmountain.wordpress.com/ links to current events involving mining accidents, and he suggested going onto PBS to look up further information on the Sago mining disaster. 

By: Shannon Green