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.

Prayer

PRAYER

heal my tears
please
mighty ALMIGHTY
GOD as the
sad yellow stream of
petuniataxis throttle
the dusk with dense
light; heal my funereal
fears flaring like flasks
of candy in the candyfloss
night billowing the
smoke of little tarzan
billowing the
wreaths of white skirts
billowing the
green clouds of the
devil’s lice and his dy-
namite eyes that make
the neutron
bom-
bay
sleepers resemble the
ancient sleep of the talmud

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