"Lord, it is time. The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness into the heavenly wine."
- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Aren't those lovely words? I came across them, looking for my daily quotation, something to post onto my Facebook profile page. I looked for a Gen. Pershing quote, it being his birthday (1860). Handsome, Missouri-born, John J. "Black Jack" [so called by his Army buddies, meaning to insult him, seeing as he in charge of African-American troops] Pershing led the American Expeditionary Forces [A.E.F.], which included redheaded Albert Harley Wolfe of Missouri. Way later on, after the Great War had become known as WWI, Harley would be my Grandpa.

Both Gen. Pershing and Dr. Walter Reed [b. this day in 1851] said many fine and useful things, I'm sure, but as I'm too impatient to hunt for them beyond a quick quote search, I found Mr. Rilke's lines on September. A happy discovery. Now I'll write them down in my little book, telling the poet thank you, lost to us though he's been since 1926, back in the land of the dead.