[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8285-8286]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                  CONGRATULATING BUDRO KENNETH BAISDEN

 Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, today, I want to congratulate 
Budro Kenneth Baisden and other young, aspiring poets for their poetry 
as part of the Poetry of Rural Places writing competition. Budro 
Baisden comes from southern West Virginia and he has lived in our coal 
fields, surrounded by coal miners and the culture of the coal fields. 
He participates in the Coalfield Writers, Marshall University Writing 
Project. This month, as the West Virginia winner, he got to travel to 
Washington, DC, for the first time, to accept his award, and to read 
his poem in the Library of Congress. In his poem, Baisden eloquently 
expresses the arduous life of a coal miner, the adversity that 
oppresses rural Americans, and the acceptance of a life destined to be 
spent underground in the mines. Given the mine tragedies that hit West

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Virginia and other States earlier this year, the spirit and the 
simplicity of his words implores us to acknowledge the parallel 
experiences of rural Americans nationwide. The words of this young West 
Virginia poet should inspire us to think about life through the eyes of 
a coal miner. It is with great pride that I submit this poem for the 
Record to share with my colleague and the public.
  Mr. President, I ask that the poem be printed in the Record.
  The poem follows:

                    Life Through a Coal Miner's Eyes

     Dark at day
     Dark at night
     It never changes
     That's the mines

     Cold and wet this they know
     Still they put on their hardhats
     And go

     No one knows why they seek that hole
     Deep in the mountains
     With all that coal
     To risk their lives for a single light pole
     That shines through a window of a
     Coal miner's home

     But there is only one thing that shines so bright
     Not the light you pass every night
     It's the smile of their wives
     When they come home at night

     That's life through a coal miner's eyes.

                                                  --Budro Baisden.

   Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Baisden is one of several students visiting 
Washington for the Poetry of Rural Places program, representing the 
National Writing Project, NWP, and the Rural School and Community Trust 
initiatives. Working together in a unique partnership, the NWP and the 
Rural School and Community Trust have provided students from rural 
areas nationwide an opportunity to compose and publish original poems 
that convey their sense of place and vision of life in rural America. 
Beginning with local programs led by writing project sites, the contest 
culminates in a national reading event at the Library of Congress. 
Hopefully, this contest will inspire students nationwide to use the 
power of poetry to explore their lives, communities, and futures as 
rural Americans.
  I encourage all of my colleagues to read the other poems written by 
these young people as they offer a profound vision of life in 
contemporary rural America. Their poems are available at 
www.ruralpoetry.org.

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