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.

A Dreampoem To Bob Dylan From Sun City

A DREAMPOEM TO BOB DYLAN FROM SUN CITY

You master minstrel who have
long brought fire to my poems
have always brought me comfort
and so even now as i languish
like a sexless mother in this
Bophuthatswana mudhole as i listen
to the chassidic enchantment
of your throatdoves and angelpigeons
pies begin to fall from on high
and how casually yet so softly sweeten
my brow with GOD’S nectar GOD’S kisses

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