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.

How Different

HOW DIFFERENT

How different it all
seems now; Gone the
mermaid tortoises from
out of the loft of my
past; Gone the brazen
valleys of milking sun;
Gone the hydrangea
leaflets of what was
once my happiness morning.
All that remains is a
sarcophagus that grins
at my forlorn plight as
restless uncertainty
plunders the fields of
ageing rye.

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