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.

That Girl

THAT GIRL

Who’s that girl the wind
is thinking of? Her cheeks
are hills where no weariness
sets foot. Her mouth is the
depth of azure where the
world’s mysteries pour out
like petrol from a drum. Her
eyes are the eagles of vision
that pluck out the terrors of
the age. Her nose is the
catapult that ridges the
darkness of infinity. Who’s
that girl the wind is thinking
of? Only swans, only ducks know,
but it is the pond that answers.

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