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.

THEY WHO MUST WAIT FOR THOSE WHO ARE BUSY

THEY WHO MUST WAIT FOR THOSE WHO ARE BUSY:

petunia pocked grimaces
lining walls;
waiting for those who are busy, –
shuffling from conference
to luncheon, executing bold rushes:
plans to complement excitement,
to fill in the gaps of lukewarm
leisure –
while those who must listen
are All the bees in the
swirl of creation
that can never wait for
those who are busy;
too much violetting sunmeshes
are there not to entrap from
Beauty Her gulls,
and the silver ribs of
guitars from the Moons
of Science the busy have
never eclipsed to see;
while those who must wait
socket into zeroed-in
impertinent impatience
the helpless straw
of their endurance.

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