Choose one of these three artworks and let it take you wherever it wants. Write whatever it stirs in you — a memory, a question, a scene, a poem. All images are open-use selections from the National Gallery of Art website.
They lean against the angle of the street,
bodies balancing where the buildings
bend like tired backs under
invisible weight.
A man pauses at the corner,
hand brushing the brick,
as if it might steady him,
hat tipped, eyes following a line
that refuses to be level.
Two children chase each other
up the slope of the stoop,
zigzagging
with the crooked geometry of the wall.
A woman's coat flutters in the wind
that sneaks between eaves and rooftops,
as if even air
is leaning to walk sideways.
The couple leaning under the roof
hands on each other's necks -
hold each other in the insanity
in the imperfect city
of calamities.
Every figure finds a rhythm
with the tilt of the city,
steps and shoulders aside
angles of habitation
the poetry of imbalance
where life refuses to be flat.
The city breathes
steel, street and
human endurance
Pittsburgh People.
Mirror to My Soul by Heather Mirassou 
Leave a reply to Elizabeth Cancel reply