Cerebral Love Poem by John Knight

This poem is dedicated to Olfa Drid - who explores the beauty of Intellectual Love in many of her Poems.

The body is bounded by space and time,
Limited to four fixed dimensions.
The activities of physical love are bounded,
By the same four parameters.

Of course the courtesans would argue,
'The permutations are infinite,
Even if you limit it to twosomes
And its popularity has never waned! '

When I told Victoria she had a beautiful mind,
She smiled but did not deny it.
She is a Cambridge double first in Physiology
And Psychology - so it was very apposite.

She explained to me that the Love Zone
In the prefrontal lobe - Brodman's area 9
Actually contains twelve billion connections.
'Room for infinite experimentation then' - I joked!

I was a research student in Biochemistry
So we spent many hours together cerebrally!
The other students suspected us of congress
But our mutual love had no physical dimensions!

It was just as intense when she moved
To Harvard for an Assistant Professorship,
In the field of Human Emotion.
I stayed at Cambridge with Crick & Watson.

What did I learn, from Professor Victoria Montgomery,
About the parameters of intellectual love,
And what did she learn from me?
And how did it compare with physical love?

Well - firstly it requires two well tuned minds.
It also requires mutual consent for cerebral access.
Secondly, because we were not clairvoyants,
Verbal communication, electronic or vis-a vis, is a necessity.

Thirdly, the process of intellectual love
Must never be demeaned by actual physical love.
It must consist solely of mental intercourse
Not an oxymoron of mental and physical.

People often talk glibly of actually being,
On another persons wavelength - of having,
The same vibes - even mistakingly of being mind-lovers.
But in all these cases - these couples are physically active!

I only know that the cerebral love
That Victoria and I share
Is not limited by space or time
And it really blossomed - transatlantically!

Sadly Victoria died in America
The serendipic victim of a light plane crash
The combination of a sense of duty
And an unforseen atmospheric storm.

Did the sweet intercourse of our minds,
Cease with her death - high in the Apalachians?
Many people have asked me that question,
Especially those who have never experienced cerebral love.

Is there a love story that embraces eternity
Once passion and desire are consumed entirely?
Love lasts forever only when it is postponed and delayed
When passion is suspended and desire is denied..............

(August 18 2009)