"Nothing in that abyss ..."

... Of all created things the source is one,
Simple, single as love; remember
The cell and seed of life, the sphere
That is, of child, white bird, and small blue dragon-fly
Green fern, and the gold four-petalled tormentilla
The ultimate memory.

...

As you leave Eden behind you, remember your home,
For as you remember back into your own being
You will not be alone; the first to greet you
Will be those children playing by the burn,
The otters will swim up to you in the bay,
The wild deer on the moor will run beside you.
Recollect more deeply, and the birds will come,
Fish rise to meet you in their silver shoals,
And darker, stranger, more mysterious lives
Will throng about you at the source
Where the tree's deepest roots drink from the abyss.

Nothing in that abyss is alien to you.
Sleep at the tree's root, where night is spun
Into the stuff of worlds, listen to the winds,
The tides, and the night's harmonies, and know
All that you knew before you began to forget ...

- from 'Message from Home' by Kathleen Raine

Pakistan: Fundies Rally for Anti-Woman Laws

Via Pooja at The Muslim Woman:

The all time controversial Women Protection Bill, which was signed into law last month under the regime of Musharraf has not been welcomed by thousands of Islamic people. They came out with a rally in Karachi to show their objection towards the bill. Nearly, 10,000 supporters of the Islamist parties, chanted slogans of ‘Down with Musharraf’ and ‘Down with the Women Protection Law’ at the rally and demanded the government scrap the law. The law takes the crime of rape out of the sphere of the religious laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, and puts it under the penal code. Under the Hudood Ordinances, a raped victim was only offered justice if she would be able to produce four male witness otherwise she would have to face the charges of treachery.