My Tinnitus – 29th August 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen

A relentlessly falling forward
Disconnected sonic information
A fry-crackle resonance
High-frequency vibration

A constant companion
Though hardly a friend
Cohesion of the chaos
An agitating sonic blend

A synaesthetic rainbow
Ears become wild eyes
Neural cross-wire overlap
A dizzy starred surprise

Wild harmonic distortions
Oscillating ear-to-ear
Polyphonic buzzing bees
Swarming and severe

Low-frequency vibration
Meditates the brain
Connected sonic information
Fall backward again

Shared with dVerse Poetics – noise
7th Feb 2026 – Shared with Reena’s Xploration Challenge #416 – susurrus

30 thoughts on “My Tinnitus – 29th August 2025”

  1. Very apt and sadly knowledgable reconnaisance of the tinnitus terrain. Strange that it isn’t really noise heard with the ear but some neural echo-chamber of it. Play in bands when you were younger? I did and live with a high sear in my “ears.”

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    1. Played in bands and later become a DIY show promoter, though I did usually wear ear plugs by that time. I probably started noticing it when I hit my 50s.

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      1. My last band bit the dust when I was 29 so I was surely spared tinnutus at Pete Townsend scale — but my wife sure gets tired of me saying What? whenever she asks me to do something. :)

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        1. Haha! I’m with you there.

          I’m trying to train my wife not to talk to me from other rooms. I have no chance of understanding what she is saying. I don’t have too much hearing loss as such but find it difficult to catch if there is too much external noise.

          The tinnitus is more noticeable when I’m reading or trying to sleep.

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  3. Quite a few poems have evolved from tinnitus in this prompt. It is sad that so many suffer. I was especially drawn to ” A fry-crackle resonance” and ” Ears become wild eyes”.

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    1. Yeah! My tinnitus is not unexpected having been around loud music for much of my life but I’m surprised at how many other folks here have said that they suffer too. Is everyone an old rocker!?

      Thanks Kim 🙏

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  5. Shaun, I think the younger generations are going to suffer more severely. The music that rattles the car windows will catch up with them soon enough. I have escaped tinnitus (but missed out on all the rock music because my father refused to have it in the house). A very accurate description nonetheless. My sister the audiologist has tested all of us and there was some serious education for the kids. That included playing a recording of what tinnitus sounded like. It would drive me to distraction!!

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  7. If you can write a poem about tinnitus (a horrible and irritating companion but not a friend, indeed), you are a great poet. I have been suffering for 25 years, and no tactic works. companion but not a friend, indeed), you are a great poet. I have been suffering for 25 years, and no tactic works.

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  8. Pingback: Reena’s Xploration Challenge #417 – Creative Experiments and More

  9. What impressed me most was how you transformed noise into imagery. The tinnitus becomes almost a character in the poem. An engaging piece.

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  10. Wild harmonic distortions
    Oscillating ear-to-ear
    Polyphonic buzzing bees
    Swarming and severe

    Acceptance of its occurrence apparently helps to reduce the tension. Balance is maintained which matters. Great lines shaun!

    Hank

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  13. I had a brush with temporary tinnitus after being right up front at a rock concert. It was unpleasant enough that I never go to a concert anymore unless I have my earplugs ready.

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Time is short, we know. All comments sincerely appreciated.