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.

Watching the Construction Site At The Corner Of Alice Street In The Heat

WATCHING THE CONSTRUCTION SITE AT THE CORNER OF ALICE STREET IN THE HEAT

Ah those blue and red helmets
in the midst of all that cement;

And the crane and the workers
buzzing just like the kind of
energetic hornets i like to
see resplendent in the mauve
turquoise layers of heat.

But it is above all the piled
up sand like pyramids that
plummets my joy to rockets;
and makes me delight in the
mirth of growth; be it
tiny or large.

Everything before me here is
tinged with the mysterious
glow of Breathing Toil,
for the hornets with labour;
but me watching: with excitement.

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