Long before the Buffalo AKG Art Museum opened to the public, some of the first people we wanted to see it were poets. Specifically, we wanted the amazingly talented wordsmiths at Just Buffalo Literary Center to tell us what they imagined for the new museum. Just Buffalo Writing Center Coordinator Robin Jordan and a small crew of young writers toured the campus while the museum was under construction looking for inspiration. Here are a few of the poems that came out of it.

We are naturally made of art

And made to make art.

Us, humans, you and me

Writers and painters

Us, pieces of it all

The priceless things we can create here

The kind of things that soothe storming water

And the glances of others, the steps on the stairs

Things that help create

The greatest gallery of all

We are naturally born to create and recreate

Sometimes the artist only knows so much

The meaning is undecided, left up to fate

No maker has to suffer or feel pain

In this echoing gallery

Art is the best thing you could ever do

It'll still shriek loudly even long after you

Because we naturally are

pieces of masters

Coming together

But even far apart

We imprint on each other

And draw on our hearts

In the echoes of the gallery walls

We're just pieces of a master

And a master of a piece

We can create disaster

And we can spark peace.

Behind us are our muses

But beyond us are our fuses

To create and recreate

We could sit here and just make

We could sit and rewrite our fate

This could echo in the walls

Of the gallery.