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.

ON THINKING

i just wish i
could be with him

having nothing
to say,

talking of clouds
to clouds of nothing

preaching the blue
and he not even
listening

touching perhaps twice
the harmonica of his
heart,

making him know
that i know certain sounds
akin to the softness of
flowers or feathers;

just to be near him
and his frame without
even his voice to whimper:
‘i would do the same’.