Francis Thompson's Daisy and Richard's Minute Meditation

I receive a daily posting called the Minute Meditation. It's organized by a Benedictine Oblate (I think). It usually contains a quote from some Catholic luminary, a scripture reading, and a hymn or poem. Actually, he and I are both refugees from a spirituality mailing list that turned into a forum for Traditionalists to bash the "modern Church." But that's neither here nor there.

Today, Richard quoted from Francis Thompson's beautiful poem Daisy:

Nothing begins and nothing ends
That is not paid with moan -
For we are born in other's pain
And perish in our own.

Not the cheeriest of sentiments, is it? Francis Thompson was not the cheeriest of human beings, nor should he have been: he was "discovered" as a homeless man addicted to heroin; he had sent a poem in to an editor. The editor almost threw the poem away before reading it; let us restrict our explanation to the observation that Francis Thompson did not have access to the highest-quality paper.

Anyhow, I like the quote, and I like the Minute Meditation. You might like to check them out (MM and FT).