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.

THE BRITTLE YIELDING OF SUCCESS

THE BRITTLE YIELDING OF SUCCESS:

Sowing an idea in a field
of Success might yield only a
cup of rye. When the vultures
vindicate the blizzard a teardrop
might sigh. Nothing can still the
hunger of an unborn frown. Only the
famine of emptiness can still the
harbinger of drought that cashes
in the flow. The cachet of summer
too tired-tinted to glow.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply