A Violent Moment in American Labor History, Captured in Verse

David Mason is a poet, essayist, critic and professor. His books of poems include “The Buried Houses,” winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, “The Country I Remember,” winner of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award, and “Arrivals.”

His most recent collection, “Ludlow,” is a novel in verse that tells the story of a handful of immigrants in southern Colorado and the Ludlow Massacre of 1914. It was named best poetry book of 2007 by the Contemporary Poetry Review and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

Mason is a professor of creative writing and literature at Colorado College.

Here, he shares a look at a dramatic moment in American labor history through his poem about a 1913 mine strike that ended in violence.

Read the full transcript here.