Crystal Good: Poetry Collection: "Valley Girl"

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.)

I've heard several interesting takes on the issue of mountaintop removal from many skilled Appalachian authors. If you've grown up here, as we have, it's an issue you can't really escape, particularly if you're a writer. Many of us feel compelled to write about the land we love so much. Good has one of the most creative expressions I've heard on mountaintop removal.

Personally speaking, having grown up in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, and due to being deployed twice in the Middle East while I was in the Army, I've been thinking about all the issues surrounding the mining and burning of coal and the global use of fossil fuels in general. Half of my family is historically from the eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia area. My great-grandfather worked hard in the mines most of his life. He died of black lung before I was born (I often wish I could have met him). I still have family in southern West Virginia/eastern Kentucky, still travel this area regularly. I can definitely relate to many of the descriptions in Good's "Boom, Boom."

Issues surrounding energy and fossil fuels aren't just for writers to talk about, but these are issues that all of us must face and deal with together. If writers can cause us to think about these issues in new ways, all the better. I'm always thankful for all artists who have something to say. Why speak, if we have nothing to say? We have all been given the great gift of our voices, but what will happen to us, to the world, if we do not have the courage to use our voices? I've always been interested in being challenged, in listening to the voices of people who have been searching for answers, looking closely and thinking about what's happening: Those who have something to say.

Good has an excellent website, http://crystalgood.net, where you can learn more about her writing/work and also get a copy of "Valley Girl."