For those who go down into the earth

I am originally from Nova Scotia, and even though I've lived by far the most part of my life away from there, there are things about being Nova Scotian that stay with me, in my heart and in my bones. For many, many years, the people of Nova Scotia have gone down into the mines, to dig up the coal that warmed the homes and fired the factories of people far away from them.

This is in memory of the people who will not come up out of the mines this day in Utah and in Shandong, and of all the others who spend their lives going down into the earth, knowing that they too might not come up again to the open air at the end of the day.

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia,
Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine,
There's blood on the coal,
And the miners lie,
In roads that never saw sun or sky,
Roads that never saw sun or sky

In the town of Springhill you don't sleep easy,
Often the earth will tremble and roll,
When the earth is restless miners die,
Bone and blood is the price of coal,
Bone and blood is the price of coal.

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia,
Late in the year of '58,
The day still comes and the sun still shines,
But it's dark as the grave in the Cumberland Mine,
Dark as the grave in the Cumberland Mine.

Three days past when the lamps gave out,
And Caleb Rushton got up and said,
"We've no more water or light or bread,
So we'll live on songs and hope instead,
Live on songs and hope instead."

Listen for the shouts of the black face miners,
Listen through the rubble for the rescue teams,
Three hundred tonnes of coal and slag,
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam,
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam.

Twelve days passed and some were rescued,
Leaving the dead to lie alone,
Through all their live they dug a grave,
Two miles of earth is a marking stone,
Two miles of earth is a marking stone.

-Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger