What is Poetry - Ali

When I first opened Nowak’s “Coal Mountain Elementary” the form nor the the way the words were composed immediately struck me as poetry. My initial thought was how he had a very unique structure for presenting the reader a series of catastrophic events. However after reading the entire book, although it is not a traditional representation of poetry, it is indeed poetry. The way the author weaves in different perspectives of mining incidents with the student activities makes Nowak’s message more clear and poignant. So what makes Nowak’s collaboration of non-poetry, poetry? But first off, what is poetry?

I believe poetry can be any piece of writing in which the author intends to be poetry and also more importantly evokes emotions from the reader.The successful poet uses words to not simply describe what is going on but paints a detailed picture in the readers mind. It can be to the point where what the poet is describing is almost palpable or the emotion the author is describing is transferred to the reader. In Coal Mountain Elementary, the way Nowak fits together the heartfelt flashbacks of the coal miners with greedy, indifferent business men emphasizes the tragic aspect to these stories. It makes the reader sympathetic to the miners and also angry about the way the newspapers and businesses are handling it. The way Nowak also weaves the activity of coal flowers adds another layer of sadness to the story. The happy association of making decorative flowers is juxtaposed against the use of mining incidents to make the flowers. Nowak’s clever addition of coal flowers brings the words to life in the mining towns and makes the words to the reader more real too.

Another important aspect of poetry is tone. Tone connects the reader closer to the persona so its possible for a transfer of emotion between the reader and writer, especially when read aloud. Overall, tone puts more meaning to the words the poet writes. Nowak has a series of voices that contribute to a single over arching tone. The multiple points of views of the coal miners lives all have similar themes of extreme worry, poverty, and death which work with each other and emphasize each other. The business memos and newspapers further highlight the sad tone by downplaying or contradiction what the miners are saying.

Overall, I do not believe poetry can be defined by specific qualities or it structure, etc. So there is no reason why Nowak’s “Coal Mountain Elementary” cannot be called poetry. A poem can take on any quality; I feel what makes a sequence of words poetry is the reaction the reader gets from reading the poem in which author intends to happen. After reading this book, I felt obligated to help the coal miners and their families, which is what Nowak wanted. This book is a form of social activism and to make people aware of what is really going on in these societies.