Profession: Poet is a new monthly blog feature exploring craft and identity in poetry by Hanoch Guy, who writes poems in both English and Hebrew.
The Limbic System Has Got Me Figured Out
I speak of fear, sheer limbic,
Reptilian fear, and there’s the rub:
Obliterate thought and all that’s left is fear…
- from “Sheer Limbic Fear” by Giuseppi Martino Buonaiuto (2015)
**The title of this blog post is taken from a poem, published in 2016, by Arlo Disarray.**
After the demise of the giant reptiles, mammals started to populate the planet. They developed a new brain, named the limbic brain, about three hundred million years ago.
Mammals took care of their young, contrary to most reptiles who did not.
For me, the limbic system is the most fascinating one. It is a treasure trove, a housing of major critical life functions. Reviewing the different centers, we can be amazed at the variety and powers of this brain.
Talking about the limbic system, “the cold world of reality formed into a bubbling cauldron of human feeling, the forces of fear, elation, anger, and lust arising from this primitive region of the brain.” (Time-Life, Washington, D.C. (1980: 91))
It looks like two half-moons floating in brain fluid. It is also called the emotional feeling brain. It may also be called the poetic brain. It holds quite a few pathways to poetry.
As other brains, the following centers can be viewed as metaphors, as brain capacities. Sometimes these are in different parts or are migrating.
Among other centers, the limbic brain contains:
our pain and pleasure center
the hippocampus, which controls long-term memory and breathing
the olfactory bulbs - very potent and rapid activators of memory
the thalamus or the affection center
the autonomic nervous system
activators of hunger and thirst
control of the intestinal and digestive system
control of the immune system
control of the lungs
Here are some ways to connect with the limbic system capacities:
Write down the first feeling of pleasure you think of.
Write another sentence.
What comes up when you think of pain?
What else comes up about pain?
What is the first smell you remember?
I am going to expand on the limbic system, memory, and poetry in a future blog.
If you want to read an extensive analysis, check out The Limbic Brain by Andrew L. Lautin.
Hanoch Guy Ph.D, Ed.D spent his childhood and youth in Israel. He is a bilingual poet in Hebrew and English. Hanoch has taught Jewish Hebrew literature at Temple University and poetry and mentoring at the Muse House Center. He won awards in the Mad Poets Society, Phila Poets, Poetry Super Highway and first prize in the Better than Starbucks haiku contest. His book, Terra Treblinka, is a finalist in the North Book Contest. Hanoch published poems in England, Wales, Israel, the U.S., and Greece. He is the author of nine poetry collections in English and one Hebrew book.