American novelist & poet (1869-1954)
I am often merry at the jests of the constellations.
Did you fancy that the stars were always serious?
Only the dull never laugh, and the stars are very bright.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Then I sped across the prairies of ether and stood upon the moon. It was no longer luminous, its hardness hurt my feet; And I found that it had nothing either to sell or give me; Its empty frankness was brutal as a blow.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Our sorrows are the golden grain
Of the great reaper--Art.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
In these unquenchable desires we feel
The thirsty future's dominant appeal;
And through the fire of our impassioned dust
A thousand ancestors their loves reveal.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
If you knew the meaning of light you would yourself be a light in a dark place.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
I know a logic beyond time and space; that is why I am so illogical, why space cannot hold me nor time make me old.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Give me to drink the poison of thy breast--
Dark cruel wine from grapes of passion pressed--
Till I am drunk beyond delirium's dream
In that dim utter deep where men may rest.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
We have a bitter power who laugh at pain,
Who laugh and laugh -- for tears are shed in vain.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
I have followed Silence from the belt of Orion to Berenice's curls -- then lost it in the laughter of my soul.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
So still is Love he hears the farthest sound:
The footfall of the seasons in their round,
The soft etheric swish of the rushing spheres,
The murmur of the mute things underground.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Bear this in mind: I merely tell you stories, as an earthly traveler would tell, of the things I see. Sometimes my interpretation of them may be wrong.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
As to the use of will-power in your present everyday problems, there are two ways of using the will. One may concentrate upon a definite plan, and bring it into effect or not according to the amount of force at one’s disposal; or one may will that the best and highest and wisest plan possible shall be demonstrated by the subconscious forces in the self and in other selves. The latter is a commanding of all environment for a special purpose, instead of commanding, or attempting to command, a fragment of it.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
I lie alone under the mocking sky.
The midnight hours indifferently walk by.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
For a body of dust is a limit to the loving of a soul.
It sees a face and finds it fair, forgetting the myriad who are unseen.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
But they who drink the Muse's breath
Pay for the draught with many tears--
Their destiny until their death
To seek her shadow down the years.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
Life can be so free here! There is none of that machinery of living which makes people on earth such slaves. In our world a man is held only by his thoughts. If they are free, he is free.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
For me the cosmic aeons lie complete,
O Love, between thy forehead and thy feet!
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
One is only safe with shadows if one carries light within.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
It has been said that he is a fool who works for philosophy instead of making philosophy work for him; but a man cannot give to the world even a little of a true philosophy without reaping sevenfold himself.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
I will give you a charm against sorrow: smile at the kisses of Pain.
She is a sensitive lover and likes not to be flouted.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel