Poetry by Rowan Evans

Author’s Note

This poem began with a simple observation:

Violets aren’t blue.

They’re violet.

Which, admittedly, is not a revelation likely to change the course of human history.

But once I started thinking about it, the entire cliché began to unravel.

Because roses aren’t always red either.

And then I found myself researching flower symbolism, color meanings, and all the ways a four-line nursery-rhyme structure completely falls apart under even the mildest amount of scrutiny.

At some point, the poem stopped being about flowers.

It became about overthinking.

About taking a perfectly functional piece of language and pulling on a loose thread until the entire sweater comes apart in your hands.

Which, if I’m being honest, describes a significant percentage of my writing process.

What makes me laugh about this piece is that it starts as a correction and ends as a complaint.

Not about roses.

Not about violets.

About the format itself.

Because the more precise and accurate I tried to make the original cliché, the more impossible it became to actually say anything romantic.

Eventually I arrived at the only logical conclusion:

Roses are complicated.

Violets are violet.

And sometimes analysis is the natural predator of romance.

— Rowan Evans

Violets Are Violet (Roses Are Complicated)
Poetry by Rowan Evans

Roses are red,
violets aren’t blue.
Also roses
aren’t always red.

Red is the classic:
romance, true love
and passion.

Pink conveys
gratitude, grace,
joy and admiration.

Yellow denotes
friendship, joy,
warmth and caring.

White represents
innocence,
purity, youth
and new beginnings.

And there’s at least
four more—
Coral, Peach,
Lavender and Orange.

So I guess
what I’m trying
to say is—

Roses
come in an assortment of colors,
Violets are violet—
and this format
makes romance hard.

Journey into the Hexverse…

[It’s Just Me but Super]
A playful free-verse poem about cartoons, imagination, cosmic wanderings, and the strange magic of creativity. Through wordplay, nostalgia, and absurd humor, Rowan Evans explores what happens when ordinary life meets an extraordinary imagination.

[100 Grand and a Book Deal]
A playful collision of candy bars, comic book heroes, basketball legends, and cosmic metaphors. Beneath the jokes lies a reflection on twenty-three years of writing, creativity, and the dream of building something lasting one line at a time.

[Copy of a Copy]
A sharp, self-aware poem about originality, imitation, and the search for an authentic creative voice. What begins as a diss gradually reveals itself as a meditation on authorship, influence, and the things that can never truly be copied.

[Lone Wolf Theology]
A philosophical pop-culture poem exploring freedom, identity, and self-authorship through the lens of superheroes, antiheroes, mythic archetypes, and personal rebellion. A declaration of autonomy in a world determined to write your story for you.

[L Words & Heart]
A playful, self-aware poem about love, longing, loyalty, and the quiet ways another person can reshape our inner world. What begins as humor slowly reveals a heartfelt confession about affection, imagination, and the faces that linger in our dreams.

[Just Beyond Waking]
A street that feels familiar. A life that hasn’t happened yet. Just Beyond Waking explores the fragile space between dreams, memory, longing, and the quiet feeling that some futures are already waiting for us.

[Twin Suns, Sister Moons]
A poem about distance, longing, and the quiet pull of someone who lives beneath a different sky. Between twin suns and sister moons, the heart keeps reaching for home.

[It’s You I Choose]
A poem about devotion, vulnerability, and the quiet decision to stay. Sometimes love isn’t certainty—it is choosing someone anyway.

If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]