David Allan Evans

David Allan Evans Poems

David Allan Evans Biography

Poet David Allan Evans was born in Sioux City, Iowa. He is the author of numerous volumes, and his collections of poetry include This Water. These Rocks (2009), The Bull Rider’s Advice: New and Selected Poems (2004), and the chapbook After the Swan Dive (2008). Evans has also published prose, including a memoir with his wife, Jan Evans, Double Happiness: Two Lives in China (1995). Evans is known as a sports poet, admitting in an interview his belief that “All poets are word athletes.” The poet laureate of South Dakota since 2002, Evans has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Artist Program, and the South Dakota Arts Council. Evans is a two-time Fulbright Scholar in China, and his work has been translated into Chinese by Zhang Ziqing. In 2009, Evans was awarded the South Dakota Governor’s Award for Distinction in Creative Achievement.)

The Best Poem Of David Allan Evans

Girl Riding a Horse in a Field of Sunflowers

Sitting perfectly upright,
contented and pensive,
she holds in one hand,
loosely, the reins of summer:

the green of trees and bushes;
the blue of lake water;
the red of her jacket
and open collar; the brown
of her pinned-up hair,
and her horse, deep
in the yellow of sunflowers.

When she stops to rest,
summer rests.
When she decides to leave,
there goes summer
over the hill.

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