Gary Evans

The Moment

We are exhausted. Seven hours and 12 miles in the Spanish heat and hills have taken their toll. We are standing before the main door of the town’s small church. The door is ajar, and we are greeted by a draft of cool air and the sound of a single soprano voice. We leave our backpacks by the door and slip inside the coolness.

The church is completely empty, save for the owner of the soprano notes that bounce among the ancient stone walls and finally come to rest sitting next to us in a back pew.

The singing stops abruptly and a teenaged girl appears. She had seen us come in and hopes that her singing isn’t disturbing us. We smile and ask her to please sing as long as she wants and so we spend luxurious minutes with our eyes closed listening to crystalline notes in the coolness, transported to a simpler time when faith was to be found in a young girl’s song.

asters in full bloom
the only here
the only now

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About the Author

Gary Evans first learned of haiku in high school, and his first published poem appeared in Haiku Highlights in 1967. After a career in education, he returned to his interest in Japanese poetry and expanded his efforts to haibun, photo haiga and rengay. He has been published in The Heron’s Nest, Mariposa, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, and Bottle Rockets, among others.

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