What’s in a name? It’s a secluded spot, near the flint church that dates back to the 1100s. The warmth of a mellow brick wall carries a fine passion-flower through our winters. Wrought iron gates are left open all the time, so of a weekend night merry youths hang out there, showing off to each other, pretending to be older, more worldly than their years. On Sunday, a few volunteer pensioners living nearby clean up the little cylinders of laughing gas, the cans of Red Bull. The rest of the week its calm can be enjoyed from the worn oak benches.

an old lady in black 
plants a rose 
with a label 
in the garden 
of remembrance 

Keith Evetts

is a retired British diplomat who lives in the UK. His earlier scientific papers are published in Nature and elsewhere; his long-form poetry in The Oxford Magazine and Linnet’s Wings; his cherita in The Cherita; and his haiku and related short forms in the leading journals, including Blithe Spirit, cattails, Cold Moon Journal, Failed Haiku, Heliosparrow Poetry Journal, Mamba: Journal of African Haiku, Presence Haiku Journal, Prune Juice Journal, The Asahi Shimbun, Wales Haiku Journal, and World Haiku Review, as well as at The Haiku Foundation. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Touchstone Awards, and anthologized in the Red Moon, Contemporary Haibun, Modern Haiku, and Dwarf Stars anthologies.

Evetts is listed among the European Top 100 Haiku Authors during the past three years. He is an administrator of Facebook’s largest haiku group and hosts the weekly haiku commentary feature at The Haiku Foundation. He’s married, with five children, a grey parrot, and a sense of humour.