Sunday, September 12, 2010

New Poem and Story

New poem, "My Grandmother Becomes a Young Widow," at Sliver of Stone, a great new journal, and a story, "Smoke," at Conteonline.

Tesla and Love




"Yes, I loved that pigeon, I loved her as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. When she was ill I knew, and understood; she came to my room and I stayed beside her for days. I nursed her back to health. That pigeon was the joy of my life. If she needed me, nothing else mattered. As long as I had her, there was a purpose in my life." Nikola Tesla

It's a familiar story, of how Tesla loved a pigeon who settled outside his window. When I first read that quote while researching a book I laughed and shook my head. But that was a few years ago. Then, for a few years after, it made me sad. Now it makes me smile and admire him a little more. Do you think such a capacity for love was connected in some way to his genius? I can't decide.

(The image is said to be the very pigeon he loved.)