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'Bridging The Gap' Poem Being Written On Greensburg Bridge

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A poem is being composed in three-dimensional letters, on the North Main Street Bridge in Greensburg. The first line has been written, leaving residents wondering, "What's next?"

"It starts here, at the north end of the bridge, and it scrolls down, and in two weeks time we'll add the next stanza," says Barbara Jones, chief curator at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. "The text will scroll down the east side of the bridge. When we come to the end, it will pick up and travel to the west side of the bridge. And when it gets to the end of that, it will come back and scroll from the north to the south, and back, and scroll down from the north side to the south side."

It'll take a year to finish. Written by poet Jan Beatty, the first line, "It's not the elm and wild cherry," makes us wonder what the next line will be.

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The "Bridging the Gap" poem is an outreach by the newly renovated Museum of American Art, which has taken on a modernistic, Fallingwater look - with a new, cantilevered gallery, filled with contemporary artworks. Previously, the museum had been limited to art from 1750 to 1950.

"We want to be able to offer to the public art of all the periods of American art," the curator says.

But what about a line to follow that first line, "It's not the elm and wild cherry."

A young woman in Greensburg nails it.

"It isn't the sunsweet, ripened berry."

For the real line, we'll have to wait a couple more weeks.

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