At Roshi’s Grave 
​Tassajara Zen Center, Carmel Valley, California

By Margaret Chula

Morning twilight. I awaken in my cabin in the Ventana Wilderness. 
This is my last day at Tassajara and I want to pay homage to Shunryu Suzuki, its first abbot.  The trail to Roshi’s grave is labeled “The Path.” Deep summer and the tensile leaves crackle underfoot, broken from oak trees that hold forth like sacred sentinels. After a steep incline, I round the corner into the clearing— Stonehenge, Greek ruins, this perimeter of stones. I hesitate before entering and gassho from a distance. His grave marker is five feet high and shaped like the island of Honshu. Roshi’s deshi have raked circular patterns around trees in the clearing with a rake stored in a cylindrical tube of rolled tin. Someone has hung a Tibetan prayer flag to honor Trungpa Rimpoche, whose ashes are buried here with his friend. Roshi, all week I felt your presence while meditating in the zendo. Though I could not honor you then, today I will remove the dead flowers and place new ones on your grave.  


            a fly buzzes
            a song sparrow chirps
            the sun comes up

Margaret Chula has published fourteen poetry collections including, most recently, Firefly Lanterns: Twelve Years in Kyoto. This haibun memoir received a 2022 NYC Big Book Award in Multicultural Nonfiction and an honorable mention in the 2022 Haiku Society of America’s Book Award. A featured speaker and workshop leader at haiku conferences around the world, she has also served as president of the Tanka Society of America, Poet Laureate for Friends of Chamber Music, and is currently on the Advisory Board for the Center for Japanese Studies. Maggie lives in Portland, Oregon, where she hikes, swims, gardens, and creates flower arrangements.

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