Poem of the month - Prayer Rug by Agha Shahid Ali  Prayer Rug
By Agha Shahid Ali Those intervals between the day’s five calls to prayer the women of the house pulling thick threads through vegetables rosaries of ginger of rustling peppers in autumn drying for winter in those intervals this rug part of Grandma’s dowry folded so the Devil’s shadow would not desecrate Mecca scarlet-woven with minarets of gold but then the sunset call to prayer the servants their straw mats unrolled praying or in the garden in summer on grass the children wanting the prayers to end the women’s foreheads touching Abraham’s silk stone of sacrifice black stone descended from Heaven the pilgrims in white circling it this year my grandmother also a pilgrim in Mecca she weeps as the stone is unveiled she weeps holding on to the pillars (for Begum Zafar Ali) Agha Shahid Ali, “Prayer Rug” from The Half-Inch Himalayas. Copyright © 1987 by Agha Shahid Ali. Poetry is a wonderful way to explore ideas in your homeschool. Reading a poem with your child can be as simple as an excuse for reading practice or can expand into an expansive learning opportunity. P.S. for more homeschooling ideas, go to Blossom Learning.
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