American novelist & poet (1869-1954)
The difference between a painter and a musician, or between a poet and a novelist, is not a difference of qualities in the entity itself; for each unit contains everything except quantity, and thus has the possibilities of development along any line chosen by its will.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
If you desire something of real value -- tell no one.
You will find it maybe when the eyes of Destiny are turned the other way.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
I want to say a word to those who are about to die. I want to beg them to forget their bodies as soon as possible after the change which they call death. Oh, the terrible curiosity to go back and look upon that thing which we once believed to be ourselves! The thought comes to us now and then so powerfully that it acts in a way against our will and draws us back to it. With some it is a morbid obsession, and many cannot get free from it while there remains a shred of flesh on the bones which they once leaned upon. Tell them to forget it altogether, to force the thought away, to go out into the other life free. Looking back upon the past is sometimes good, but not upon this relic of the past.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
Call no man free nor count his bondage done,
Though he be master of unminted gold
With kings to do him homage, if his hold
Be not so strong on the immortal sun--The shining, heliocentric Self—that none
May loosen it.
ELSA BARKER
The Frozen Grail and Other Poems
You can do so much for me by lending me your hand occasionally, that I wonder why you shrink from it.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
I know that I am a charmer, for when I wait Time always stands still.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
I would slake my thirst sometimes at the wells of old remembrance;
But the water is so deep I fear to fall therein.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel
The pain of Love has poisoned all the day.
Pitiless Love, that lures but to betray!
And pitiless the whisper of the soul:
Like songs and worlds, this too shall pass away.
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
Oh, kill me with thy kisses! Drain me dry
Of pain and life, nor leave me breath to sigh;
Yea, feed my spirit, starving at thy lips,
Thy sweet perfidious poison ere I die!
ELSA BARKER
"The Garden of Rose and Rue", The Book of Love
If a man understands that his recent sojourn on earth was merely the latest of a long series of lives, and if he concentrates his mind towards recovering the memories of the distant past, he can recover them.
ELSA BARKER
Letters from a Living Dead Man
There is a sore spot in the heart of Truth, and no balm can ever heal it.
ELSA BARKER
Songs of a Vagrom Angel