Roy Joseph Cotton – September 11, '53 – March 10, '85

Roy commenced writing poetry during his latter school years. He read prolifically and was passionate about music and was a devote to Bob Dylan. He wrote many plays or "Musical Paintings" as he called them, and was also busy with two works "Multimythicum" and "Girlpools, Whirpools, and other gusts of Twirling Hair". He wrote from the security of a warm, close family in a comfortable Cape Town (South Africa) suburb. Yet most of his huge output of poems reflect a consuming angst. It was an angst which drove him to search for peace throughout books, music, writing, and religion, and it led to ultimate despair. His highly idiosyncratic way with language and the intense pressure of his emotional and spiritual concerns make his poetry compelling and disturbing reading. His untimely death at age of 31 cut short his promising career as a poet.

To A Silent Stream

TO A SILENT STREAM

Sing silent stream.
Speak of yesterday’s
puddles. What does
it matter if the
automobile market is
packed with lunatics?
Say that mulberries
are beautiful and that
the lilies of spring
are tangible. You are
as gentle as a fire.
What the brat with yellow
nipples ascertains hardly
matters. Whisper that
the Beauty of the earth
can never be violated.

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