Coal Mountain Elementary is a collection of different forms of art. It is constructed of a lesson plan developed by the American Coal Foundation for the Coal Mountain students, translated articles from Chinese newspapers, and transcripts from the 2006 Sago, West Virginia coal mining accident. Could anyone call this poetry? Mark Nowak, the author of Coal Mountain Elementary, does not even know. This explains simply, yet perfectly how beautiful and abstract poetry can be. Stanzas and rhyming words may create a traditional poem, however they all don’t have to be written in this format. There is no definition to poetry, therefore the organization and literary elements of Coal Mountain Elementary could be considered poetry in itself. On the contrary, Nowak’s work may be seen as a masterwork, however not a something that expresses feeling about an idea. This leaves us pondering the difference between poetry and prose.
Mark Nowak’s book brings about much discussion and debate. But, this could have been his potential purpose of Coal Mountain Elementary. People can argue that the real encounters are explanations of coal mining accidents, and that the pictures are just demonstrations of coal labor. However, we don’t know if Nowak’s idea was this straight forward. The story of the miners in West Virginia and in China could be looked at in an artistic form. Art can be presented in various forms and is open to interpretation, making this not just a book, but a book of poetry. Poetry is meant to raise questions among the readers, and in Coal Mountain Elementary we wonder why there is a lesson plan about coal flowers, why a transcript follows it, and then why a photo of a Chinese miner comes before all of that information. When analyzing the book this way it is as if a story was created by the four different elements. In this case structure meant everything, and in fact created an emotional message. Nowak wants to get across that new procedures need to take place in order for all the coal mining accidents to cease worldwide. Either way people can argue that Coal Mountain Elementary is a poem in an unfamiliar, yet unique form.
From a different standpoint, Coal Mountain Elementary can be looked at as a collection of works that come together to create an objective, but is not poetry.
Nowak developed prose that educates the readers about coal mining, and the various occasions that fatal and detrimental accidents have occurred. It is a collection of emotions of other people, and he himself did not actually write Coal Mountain. It could be seen as more of a research source that gives factual information from different coal mining perspectives. Everything in the book has a feeling behind it, but it could be considered outside the realm of poetry due to all the facts.
It is definitely debatable whether Coal Mountain Elementary is an element of poetry. On either end there is evidence that poetry exists among Nowak’s work, and that it’s simply sources bound together to make a point. Either way, Nowak is trying to show the dangerous coal mining industry, and whether he does it in a poetic way or not, he gets his idea across. In the newspaper articles, from the transcripts, and by looking at the pictures emotion and feeling are present. Isn’t poetry an expression in many forms? The answer to this question truly depends on the reader. Everything has more than one interpretation, and that is exactly why this “book” brings up such a discussion. There are a variety of opinions, and that is what makes art and literature so unique, a piece of work could potentially mean anything you want it too.
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