tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3489069085436219130.post3002770546585189868..comments2023-05-05T00:51:16.597-07:00Comments on douglangsdcpoetryblog: Ahmos Zu-Bolton IIdouglanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00045305196252862765noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3489069085436219130.post-36171156624435428312007-08-14T21:13:00.000-07:002007-08-14T21:13:00.000-07:00Ahmos was one of the sweetest, kindest, most humbl...Ahmos was one of the sweetest, kindest, most humble poets I ever met in a lifetime of meeting poets. I loved his work, and as I said in another comment, I'm truly sorry I didn't include some in None of the Above, the anthology I edited in the early '70s. I did publish him, as did others, in Mass Transit, the mag that came out of the weekly reading series, and we hung out quite a bit. Whenever I was with him, I felt less antic, more peaceful than was normal for me back then, because of the peace in his presence. It was like some jazz musician friends said they felt in the presence of john Coltrane after he cleaned up and got deeply spiritual. Ahmos could smile in response to something I said and I'd know right away to take a deep breath and talk more slowly and make sure I meant every word and wasn't just riffing. We shared poems, he even asked my advice on some, and would be honest about what he thought of mine. He also gave me things—books, music, poems, etc. and once, when he was in my studio apartment on Florida Avenue, he admired a carved wooden sculpture of an African figure that had been given to me by my best friend in the service who I ran into on a street in Boston after not having seen him for years, where he was selling these figures he had carved, big heavy figures, maybe three feet tall and a foot or more in diameter, he was selling in order to raise enough money to make a trip to Africa, maybe move there. It meant a lot to me, but Ahmos was so taken with it, and he had always been so generous with me, I impulsively gave it to him on the spot, and the grace with which he accepted this gift and honored it was typical of every encounter I had with him back then. At the Mass Transit readings he was always a gentle but powerful presence, and his poetry was always good, always uniquely his, and always appreciated. I can't speak for others who were there in those years, but I loved being around him, and loved him period. Wish I'd seen him more after I moved away.Lallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05310472614196384595noreply@blogger.com