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 Poem Of White Yearning

A POEM OF WHITE YEARNING

Oh this white yearning;

the nature thereof?

Means what to me now here
alone in the deep dark
midst of the stikland trees
where Hope and Truth
seem to be like two guinea fowls
scouring the dream terrain
for crumbs, and lost lonely
kisses;

Oh this burning ache;
with only concrete near
and the dumb bachelor
stumblings of
my shadows wheeling through the air

of my iridescent longing.

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