H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

RANDY ROARK

Christmas Poem 2003

Last December, I "retired" from writing poetry, and I haven't written an original poem

since (other than collaborations), but on Halloween of this year I went alone to see an

exhibit at the Denver Art Museum called "From El Greco to Picasso," on tour from the

Philips Museum, the first American modern art collection (begun in the early twenties).

Besides every painting in the collection being beautiful (having been culled from

thousands of paintings in the complete collection), it was also here that I for the first time

saw how the “cool” colors receded in a painting by Cezanne, and I became so dizzy that I

had t sit on the floor for several minutes before I could go on.