FounderI looked around for poems and writings about tinnitus and came across David King's and Gerald B. Frank's writings:
Voices
Some. like myself, have echo chambers in the brain.
We hear a sound, the sound gets trapped, runs round again.
All sound is in the brain, of course, does not exist
outside. Outside are fluctuations in the air,
its pressures on the inner ear equipped to turn
them into signals to the brain, where we live through
them in the form of sound. For some years now I've had
just such a chamber in my head. One ear has lost
its usefulness; the nerve, unstimulated and,
like all of nature in its hatred of the smallest
of near-vacuums, has learnt self-stimulation,
composing its own music and defying me
to tell the difference. It lays a single note
from somewhere in the body, runs it round a few
times, adding overtones and undertones and half
tones to the score. It's chamber music with a penny
difference, the sound-equivalent of being stood
between two mirrors, seeing endless images
extending into space. Sometimes the music sounds
like speech, like voices murmuring from far away;
sometimes the notes are dragged through water, lose their shape.
At times, I feel for those distinguished or deluded
souls who think they hear God's voice - or angels - telling
them what they should think and do. And then I think of
all the sounds the world creates, suggestive of our
human speech: the deep voice of the ocean, for
a start, and I can understand their guilessness.
(c) David King - Voices
Tinnitus
Tinnitus: hiss
of the viper, viperish
hiss, kiss of death,
death of silence, its bliss.
Shhhh, sound for no sound,
for hush, word for silence,
word meant to brush
sound under the carpet,
escaping and breaking
in wave upon wave, crashing
through the sound barrier.
We call it white noise
that is muddy, distorted,
then booms its confusion
embracing all sound
(as white is all colours)
from sizzle to whistle,
from gong to bird song.
Heard or unheard, it's
the sound of the gas
creeping into the chamber,
din from within
the heart of creation.
Sea-heart and surf-roar,
wave-break and shell-speak,
babble of voices rise to
crescendo, siren
and word-like, though wordless
and barren 'til peak swell,
the stopper, kills all
but the viper,
kills all but its hiss,
death to silence, its bliss.
(c) David King - Tinnitus
Tinnitus O
By Gerald B. Frank
The bells are ringing in my ears
As they've been ringing all these years,
And as I listen to their peel,
I wonder if they're really real?
The bells are ringing in my ears -
Unreally real for all these years!
Tinnitus C
By Gerald B. Frank
This morning I can hear the roar
Of whistles deep inside my craw,
The hiss of steam is most insistent,
I hope today I'll prove resistant
To its constant noisome noise
Lest it dampen this day's joys.
If I live a wholesome day,
Will the ringing go away?
Ha! As I rise to write this poem,
The hissing stops - leaves me alone!
I'll live this day as best I can,
Until the hissing starts again.
Tinnitus A
By Gerald B. Frank
The hissing in my ear goes on
Like an operatic song,
One by Verdi, not Bellini,
Led by Solti, not, Guilini,
Sung and played in monotone
On my ear-drum gramophone!
Tinnitus X
By Gerald B. Frank
As I lie here on the floor
To exercise my back once more,
I just relax - sometimes I dose
(As he who's done it surely knows!) -
The quiet and the silence reign
Except I hear that hiss again,
The constant hiss of Tinnitus;
Now, tell me why he makes a fuss -
He comes with me where e'er I go,
Summer, winter, sun or snow;
I keep him warm inside my head,
He reads with me each book I've read,
He shares my meals, my kids, my walks,
My jokes, my triumphs and my talks!
So why, I wonder, does he mess
With my quiet happiness?
Tinnitus Z
By Gerald B. Frank
The constant hiss of Tinnitus
is growing more and more,
Its getting louder worries me -
I wonder what's in store?
I wake and hear my Tinnitus,
the hissing in my ears,
I walk and hear that Tinnitus
exacerbating fears!
Please, tell me what is Tinnitus,
and tell me, please, why me?
And tell me what I have to do
to be of Tinnitus free?
Tinnitus ZC
By Gerald B. Frank
Hissing, hissing in my ears
Makes me feel so very queer,
Makes me wonder will I be
Losing soon my sanity,
Makes me wonder what comes next -
Who implanted this mean hex?
Yet, when I think of other things
My Tinnitus in silence sings!
Tinnitus ZF
By Gerald B. Frank
Tinnitus, Tinnitus in my ear -
I hope you'll soon, yes, disappear,
You've got my brain so nicely curled
I've got to get you from my world!
Voices
Some. like myself, have echo chambers in the brain.
We hear a sound, the sound gets trapped, runs round again.
All sound is in the brain, of course, does not exist
outside. Outside are fluctuations in the air,
its pressures on the inner ear equipped to turn
them into signals to the brain, where we live through
them in the form of sound. For some years now I've had
just such a chamber in my head. One ear has lost
its usefulness; the nerve, unstimulated and,
like all of nature in its hatred of the smallest
of near-vacuums, has learnt self-stimulation,
composing its own music and defying me
to tell the difference. It lays a single note
from somewhere in the body, runs it round a few
times, adding overtones and undertones and half
tones to the score. It's chamber music with a penny
difference, the sound-equivalent of being stood
between two mirrors, seeing endless images
extending into space. Sometimes the music sounds
like speech, like voices murmuring from far away;
sometimes the notes are dragged through water, lose their shape.
At times, I feel for those distinguished or deluded
souls who think they hear God's voice - or angels - telling
them what they should think and do. And then I think of
all the sounds the world creates, suggestive of our
human speech: the deep voice of the ocean, for
a start, and I can understand their guilessness.
(c) David King - Voices
Tinnitus
Tinnitus: hiss
of the viper, viperish
hiss, kiss of death,
death of silence, its bliss.
Shhhh, sound for no sound,
for hush, word for silence,
word meant to brush
sound under the carpet,
escaping and breaking
in wave upon wave, crashing
through the sound barrier.
We call it white noise
that is muddy, distorted,
then booms its confusion
embracing all sound
(as white is all colours)
from sizzle to whistle,
from gong to bird song.
Heard or unheard, it's
the sound of the gas
creeping into the chamber,
din from within
the heart of creation.
Sea-heart and surf-roar,
wave-break and shell-speak,
babble of voices rise to
crescendo, siren
and word-like, though wordless
and barren 'til peak swell,
the stopper, kills all
but the viper,
kills all but its hiss,
death to silence, its bliss.
(c) David King - Tinnitus
Tinnitus O
By Gerald B. Frank
The bells are ringing in my ears
As they've been ringing all these years,
And as I listen to their peel,
I wonder if they're really real?
The bells are ringing in my ears -
Unreally real for all these years!
Tinnitus C
By Gerald B. Frank
This morning I can hear the roar
Of whistles deep inside my craw,
The hiss of steam is most insistent,
I hope today I'll prove resistant
To its constant noisome noise
Lest it dampen this day's joys.
If I live a wholesome day,
Will the ringing go away?
Ha! As I rise to write this poem,
The hissing stops - leaves me alone!
I'll live this day as best I can,
Until the hissing starts again.
Tinnitus A
By Gerald B. Frank
The hissing in my ear goes on
Like an operatic song,
One by Verdi, not Bellini,
Led by Solti, not, Guilini,
Sung and played in monotone
On my ear-drum gramophone!
Tinnitus X
By Gerald B. Frank
As I lie here on the floor
To exercise my back once more,
I just relax - sometimes I dose
(As he who's done it surely knows!) -
The quiet and the silence reign
Except I hear that hiss again,
The constant hiss of Tinnitus;
Now, tell me why he makes a fuss -
He comes with me where e'er I go,
Summer, winter, sun or snow;
I keep him warm inside my head,
He reads with me each book I've read,
He shares my meals, my kids, my walks,
My jokes, my triumphs and my talks!
So why, I wonder, does he mess
With my quiet happiness?
Tinnitus Z
By Gerald B. Frank
The constant hiss of Tinnitus
is growing more and more,
Its getting louder worries me -
I wonder what's in store?
I wake and hear my Tinnitus,
the hissing in my ears,
I walk and hear that Tinnitus
exacerbating fears!
Please, tell me what is Tinnitus,
and tell me, please, why me?
And tell me what I have to do
to be of Tinnitus free?
Tinnitus ZC
By Gerald B. Frank
Hissing, hissing in my ears
Makes me feel so very queer,
Makes me wonder will I be
Losing soon my sanity,
Makes me wonder what comes next -
Who implanted this mean hex?
Yet, when I think of other things
My Tinnitus in silence sings!
Tinnitus ZF
By Gerald B. Frank
Tinnitus, Tinnitus in my ear -
I hope you'll soon, yes, disappear,
You've got my brain so nicely curled
I've got to get you from my world!
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