American novelist & poet (1869-1954)
There is a crevice in Love's garden wall
Where mandrakes thrive, with lilies rank and tall;
Where stealthy Death peers through a purple veil
In madmen's eyes, and strange worms crawl and crawl.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Concentration is the secret of power.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
Sometimes I love thee so I wish thee dead.
I would devour thy being as my bread;
Would drain thy hidden veins dry, as of wine,
Red drop by drop, for all my heart has bled!
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Wisdom is a tree of slow growth; the rings around its trunk are earthly lives, and the grooves between are the periods between lives. Who grieves that an acorn is slow in becoming an oak?
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
It is undoubtedly true that there is no spirit without substance, no substance without spirit, latent or expressed; but a painting of a man may seem at a distance to be a man.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
Deep Love is slow of speech and void of art;
Silence and timid tears reveal his heart.
But shallow Love is ever eloquent
To mouth his meagre passion -- and depart.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
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
Always it seems
That only a thin veil--
Sheer as the music of the nightingale--
Trembles and streams
Between me and the mystery of dreams.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
If you have something to give -- throw it out of the window;
The one who needs it will come along with eyes bent on the ground.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
It is a long road that leads to eternity, and the inns for travelers are few.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
Even a cricket knows the difference between a man and an angel; For a man looks not at the ground whereon he walks, he crushes many a life; While the passing of an angel leaves all the world a-thrill.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
My friend, there is nothing to fear in death. It is no harder than a trip to a foreign country—the first trip—to one who has grown oldish and settled in the habits of his own more or less narrow corner of the world.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
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
I have never given my soul to the keeping of an earthly body,
And so I can sing at all times and seasons.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
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
The hospitality of the universe is famous among the comets;
There is always an extra plate for the late-comer and a flower for his buttonhole.
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
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
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 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