Journalist and author Jeff Biggers did an interesting write-up on West Virginia poet Crystal Good and her collection of poetry, "Valley Girl." His post, titled "Valley Girl: Appalachia's Future Poet Laureate Takes on Mountaintop Removal," appeared earlier this year in Huffington Post Books. He links to a YouTube video of Good sharing her poem, "Boom, Boom," which I'm also presenting below for you to check out (it's well worth a listen). The metaphor Good uses to describe mountaintop removal is very powerful.
Here's what the poem is about, as quoted in the information presented below the YouTube video:
Affrilachian Poet and native West Virginian Crystal Good reads "BOOM BOOM," a poem reflecting on strip mined mountains and women who take off their clothes for money. Good says, "I see the mountain as a woman. This poem is about strip mining as much as it is about gender. A heavy equipment operator working on an above ground mine site is doing what he feels he has to do -- sometimes life doesn't give us many options and sometimes the consequences of few employment options are more than we expected. It's hard for a stripper to reclaim her reputation -- it's impossible to put back a stream or a mountain top once it's gone." (Unedited video: Jeff Getner.)