This is a photo of Rick Overton (with left hand on my shoulder), me, and Ron Zimmerman (in hat, with my left hand on his shoulder) at Beyond Baroque in Venice Beach, California, in December 2018 when I was there on a book tour for my last poetry collection, Another Way To Play, which Ron is holding.
Ron and I originally met in LA in the 1980s when he was a comedy writer for TV and began showing up at the weekly poetry readings I ran with Eve Brandstein. His mischievous and sarcastic humor sometimes made me feel like he didn't like me, but eventually I realized it was just his way of dealing with his own fears and we became good friends.
I was touched to see him at my reading in 2018 and even more so because he seemed so subdued and genuinely warm and loving to me. He may have already been sick and humbled by that, but whatever the cause I was moved and gave him a long hug. When I heard he was ill and then that he'd passed, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I'm coming out from under the weight of that and getting to the peace I find in acceptance of these realities, but damn man it's bad enough when older folks die, but when people even a little younger pass it's a jolt to the system, all the systems. R.I.P. Ron.
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