From El Mirrador (the outlook) above San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico, you can look down on the city and see its most iconic structure: La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel It has been called a "cotton candy church" by some, perhaps because it takes on soft colors in certain light. If you sit in El Jardin, the plaza on which it is located, it looks like a Gothic cathedral, but it a parish church, is not a cathedral. And only the façade is Gothic. The church was built in the 17th century, but in the 1880s, it was decided that a new façade was needed. An indigenous architect, Zeferino Gutierrez, was hired to head the project. It is said that he was shown postcard pictures of European cathedrals. Either he was enamored of them and decided he wanted to create a church that looked Gothic, or he was instructed to do so (stories differ). Whatever actually happened, he designed the front of one of the best-loved and most-photographed churches in Mexico - the most iconic structure of San Miguel de Allende.
There are many iconic structures in the world which have inspired poets in the past, and can still serve as inspiration for poets in our day. Yet there were fewer entries in the January challenge than is usually the case, and the judges determined that none was a winner. So if you didn't find time to enter the challenge by the January 15 deadline, you have a second chance. Or if you entered but your poem didn't win, you can revise it and try again.
Stun me with your poem about a building that is iconic: the leaning tower of Piza, the opera house in Sydney, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Burj Khalifa in Dubai - or an iconic building closer to home. The challenge will be left open until a winner is declared. Follow the direction in the previous post, except for the deadline.
A new challenge will be posted on February 1. Good luck!
The picture below is of the Washington Monument, an iconic structure in Washington, DC, taken from inside the Jefferson Monument, another iconic structure.
