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.

My conveyerquick eagles

MY CONVEYERQUICK EAGLES

When the whitejacketed professor
asks me this or that i remain
silent. I let my conveyerquick
eagles speak. I do not hold myself
responsible for what they say, and
the steelsoft birds of my own making
do not wish me to understand the
fluency of their thought. My eagles
are doing well for me as they clack
their oiled wings nearer the perfection
of known methodology taking me closer
to clouds of frostsalt for which i
care little but which they sense that
i am going to need. I am grateful to
my eagles as they convey me to welltimed
crests with their disciplined wings.
They fend for me while i study
the flex inexorable of breaking stars.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply