A Literal Coal Mountain in Newport News, Virginia

“Nowak imagines writing that has the power to change these I’s into a resonating We.“
In many ways Chinese society is inaccessible to most westerners. Sure, a huge percentage of the commercial products we consume come from the East. The “Made in China” tag is ubiquitous. Even so, the culture to a large extent a closed one.
That Nowak chooses to use Chinese coal mining disasters as mirror to the West Virginia mining disasters, reflects his concern with the “We” of these tragic phenomena. Nowak’s poetry “goes somewhere;” just as the coal, once mined, is transported throughout market territories.
Dominion Terminal Associates’ (DTA), pictured above offers as it official motto:

“Coal For The World”
World Class Terminal Providing Export and Coastwise Coal Loading Services, From Eastern Mines to ports all over the world!

For the world indeed. The disasters of the coal mining industry as catalogued by Nowak are accompanied by collateral damage throughout the world. The dust from each collapse, each explosion ends up somewhere, even outside of its localized sphere.
“…in Norfolk [Virginia], but the environmental impacts are also significant. Coal dust particulates, fine particles of powdered carbon, blow off the rail cars and conveyor belts, polluting back yards and potentially affected[sic] human health all the way to the Ghent neighborhood [an affluent suburb]. Norfolk Southern relies upon chemicals to suppress the movement of “fugitive” dust. Rail cars loaded with coal are not required to have covers or tarps comparable to what is required of loaded trucks traveling on Virginia highways.”
Norfolk Southern’s [railway company] Pier 6 predates clean air legislation and pretty much does its own thing with respect to dealing with the dust.
“In contrast, the coal loading terminal at Newport News [twenty minutes away from Norfolk] … was built in the 1980’s. To meet Clean Air Act limits on particulates… the rail car dumper at Newport News is enclosed and water is sprayed on the coal piles to reduce wind-blown dust.” (www.virginiaplaces.org/transportation/coaltran sport.html)
The story of uncovered railway cars loaded with coal passing through and standing in not so affluent neighborhoods (such as my hometown in Norfolk) deserves a separate treatment, but the effects of coal dust in these places surely created health hazards,
So, Nowak’s work, I believe, is one in which the “We” is designed to have us consider how we all are affected by what might seem like issues remote to our own, physically and psychologically. The reality though is that, that we are more alike than different and what emanates from the depths of the coal mine reaches the outer edges of humanity globally. The juxtaposition of the Chinese disasters with West Virginia disasters promotes a common language that these poems are symbolic of. A language that is clear to us even in Mandarin.