David Anderson Polk was born on November 10, 1940 in Paducah, Kentucky. He passed away on April 24,2026 in Lexington Ky. He received his Bachelor in English, University Kentucky and Master of Arts of Humanities, San Francisco State University. He taught in the department of humanities at the Portland Museum Art School. His teaching continued as an instructor [BB2.1]in English at the University of Cincinnati, Paducah (Kentucky) Community College, Murray (Kentucky) State University. He was the Chair of general education at Career Com Junior College, Paducah, and taught English at EKU. David served in United States Army, 1961-1965. As a lifelong working poet whose books include Falling, Riverrun Press New York City, 1968, and Drinking the River, Fomite Press, Burlington, VT, 2021, as well as publishing poems in various magazines. He also founded Deer Crossing Press, in 1978.

He was the son of John Wright and Joanne (Jones) Polk who proceeded him in death. He is survived by his sister Sueberry Dickerson, sister Ann Elwyn Gray, his brother John Wright the third, his cousin Alison Lewis, as well as his son, Adrian (Robin) Harvey and two granddaughters, Hope and Harper. His family nickname was Uncle Noodle. He enriched our lives greatly with his beautiful writing and poetry, love of jazz music, unique gifts along with New Yorker cartoons chosen thoughtfully for each person, fascination with nature/especially rivers, special attentiveness for his family and friends and so many more lovely attributes that we shall deeply miss and always cherish. He will be remembered for his kind heart, his infectious sense of humor and his love of family and friends. His body has been donated to the UK medical school cadaver program therefore a service is pending. In lieu of flowers please honor David with donations to Public Radio WEKU.org. or the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. T2T.org.

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