American novelist & poet (1869-1954)
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
Immortal love is fearless, and leaves the key of its door on the outside.
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
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
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 saw a bird on a bough and wondered if he were dreaming. And then another came; the two sat long together and not a note they sang. The sun went down in the west, and the shadows wrapt their veils around the shivering earth; the moon arose behind the mountains, the full-faced harvest moon that turns all things to magic. The two birds on the bough were dark against the moon's gold face. And still no note they sang—their silence thrilled the world. And I forgot the meadows and the hills, the trees and the golden harvest; for I knew that those two dreaming birds were the heart of a miracle.
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
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
There are horrors out here—far worse than the horrors on earth.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
And after all our toils and dreams and prayers,
'Tis only Love for which the future cares;
Labour and fame are steps along Love's way,
And art is but the garment that he wears.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
He who remembers, sees; and he who sees, can fly.
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
The Rose of Life to us reveals
Her hidden petals without shame,
For in our questing faith she feels
The love that melts the seven seals
Of the Eternal Name.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
Imagination has great power. If you make a picture in the mind, the vibrations of the body may adjust to it if the will is directed that way, as in thoughts of health or sickness.
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 met one man who refused to speak of the earth, and was always talking about "going on." I reminded him that if he went on far enough he would come back to the place from which he started.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
She is the idol of the wise,
The mistress of the rhyming race;
But pain lurks in her luring eyes,
And bitter-sweet is her embrace.
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
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
Ah, the joy of loving a sleeping thing! All true lovers know that wonder. Sleep is a great magician. His spells are woven in the darkness between the worlds; His philtres are made of herbs that grow by the great river of forgetfulness which flows by the throne of the All-knowing.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel