The incessant noise,
Of the past 6 months,
Has left in me a paranoia;
Just take a deep breath,
Why not?
Oh, no no no no no,
Even with ear plugs in,
And noise-cancelling headphones on,
Even though I’ve now blocked out those sounds,
My body does not want to relax,
Or allow myself to feel good,
Ever!
Because I’m subconsciously just waiting,
For that car door in the street to SLAM!
WHAM!
KA-BAM!
This sound,
Is unbelievably frequent,
And it reverberates off the terraced rows;
Oh it makes me shudder,
The thought of letting down my guard,
Inhaling deeply and expecting a continuous breath,
Expecting a relaxing sensation,
Feels extremely risky and hopeless!
βThis is the legacy,
Of noise pollution,
And noise trauma;
Oh, if only we do have a national self-isolation,
It’ll be like Christmas and New Year rolled into one,
Which were beautifully silent,
Oh, that’d be fantastic!
But, for now,
Excuse me if I need to go backwards,
Or I’ve not achieved what I needed to, lately,
Because I now need to recover,
From all that noise punishment,
No-holds-barred,
Free of guilt.
πͺ
π»πππππ
π πΆπ πͺππππ πͺ 
Hi Robin : I can identify with what you have written.
Noise pollution affects all of us, although some of us are more sensitive than others.
I notice that some of your posts appear in French on my screen.
Do you speak French, or any other languages ?
Canada is officially bilingual in French and English. π€
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Hi Sally, thank you again! It’s really cool how I have different followers who will pitch in saying they relate to various thingsβ misophonia, OCD, ADHD, autism, trauma lol. Really helps to know I’m not going mad!
Yes I definitely agree it affects everybody. Although I write from a perspective of extra-sensitivity, everything I write about noise is for everybody, too. And I see it partly a role of highlighting a growing problem that we need to be more aware of, especially in terms of its true health effects.
Yes! I’ve been trying out writing poems in French :). I’ve always had a hobby of learning French, it’s something I always come back to in phases or when I have the opportunity to improve it. But since joining WordPress, I started reading poetry by a French writer on here (Francine Hamelin), and a lot of my French started coming back again. Reading her poetry has really helped, and I’ve been setting French as my default language on everything and found some great French dictionary resources, so I’m really pushing myself to improve grammer and vocabulary! I’ve never really had much chance to speak in French, though when drunk I can do so quite well, apparently! I just don’t have any confidence with actually speaking, in terms of embarrassment factor.
I’m really loving writing in French, publishing French poetry is absolutely forcing me to work really hard! I love the pressure it creates, lol. Some days I just get the urge to express myself in French, my brain is thinking in French for some reason and I write the French poems on those days.
I’ve put a lot of effort into Norwegian in the past, using Duolingo, and got pretty good at reading it! It’s a much easier language, it would come back to me if I was exposed to it again. I’m focusing on French until I become fluent and then will move onto another language. Would love to be good at Spanish, I very briefly saw some earlier and quite a lot of it was familiar from the French, which is good news!
Yes! I actually lived in Vancouver for 9 months of 2014, through my job at the time. I knew it was bilingual but was really surprised to see all the signs in French as well as English. Well, actually I’d been in Vancouver before in 2009 for 10 days, but I’d forgotten that haha. I hadn’t expected it was genuinely on a par with English like that. But anyway, I loved that! To see French everywhere :D. I’ve been to Toronto and Niagara Falls too.
Are you good with French?
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Oh man how do I always do that, write so much without realising π.
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Hi ! Nice to hear from you. Great that you have visited Canada ! Vancouver, Toronto and Niagara Falls are great places.
Newfoundland is part of Canada, but a distinct culture, with a distinct dialect which I call “Newfoundlandish”. π€ I am still not fluent in this one…
Newfoundland was a former British Colony until 1949.
Interesting that we are having this discussion today, because today I posted about language. π€
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Oh! Interesting, I will read your post in a minute! Interesting, I hadn’t realised Newfoundland had such a distinct culture etc. There is so much to explore! Canada is a place I’d really love to explore by car, eventually. It’s my dream I guess to go visit wordpress people in person, across the world. That’s be so much fun! Haha.
Are you a fan of Trailer Park Boys? Me and my London friends are! Lol. They’re especially keen on it. We think it’s great. Actually, we’ve seen those guys live in London!
Did you move to Newfoundland from somewhere else? I just realised Nova Scotia means ‘New Scotland. Appropriate and interesting!
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Hi !
We moved here in 2005, from Ontario, when my husband was diagnosed with a severe heart condition. We wanted to spend his last days by the sea, looking out towards Ireland. In the peace and quiet , and ultra fresh air, he grew stronger.
We travelled to Ottawa, Canada, to the Heart Institute. He had his heart repaired, and today is doing really well.
Yes, I have watched Trailer Park Boys when we lived in Ontario, but these days I don’t watch TV generally, because I find the images and sound overstimulating too. But I remember that the show was funny.
You live in London ? Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. π€
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Wow, Sally! That’s an incredible story. It could have been so sad, but that move was extremely inspired. I also find myself strengthened the more I am in nature, not that I get many opportunities at the moment.
That’s reinforced my conviction to find an environment like that eventually!
It’s so great that the Heart Institute was able to help.
I don’t live in London, actually, but near! 40 miles away :). All of my long-term friends live there, and another one lives in Hong Kong. He’s just had to cancel a trip to come back to the UK for his grandad’s 100th birthday! Because of the Covid situation. Very unlucky.
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Hi !
Nice to hear from you.
Sorry that your friend can’t attend his grandad’s very special birthday.
I have lived in Toronto, I went to graduate school there, and appreciated all the culture that a large centre has to offer, but for my noise sensitivity, it was too stimulating.
Right now, I can just hear a bit of the sea. The waves are quieter, because the sea ice is here.
Our “pet” seagull, Miss Scott, has already been here for breakfast. She has been coming here since 2017.
Nature is healing, and we can be encouraged and inspired to know that not all places are noisy. π€
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Ohhhh!!! This is very well done Robin!!!!! Noise trauma…. You brought your feelings to light here. β€οΈ
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Wow, thanks so much! (Should I call you Hal?).
It seems like I expressed the misophonia better in this one than the others? It did feel like I’d summed up the feelings the best, with a big overview of it all.
Yeah, I guess it was more creative than usual! It’s definitely helping my writing having control of the sound environment!
Really appreciate the comment :)π
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I thought this one stuck out more to me. You really did a good job describing it. You can call me whatever you want lol!!!!!!!!!! π
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Cool, understood. Thanks a lot!! π.
Haha!! π. Seriously? I’m going to call you Exclamation Mark, then. Or Eczema for short.
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HAHAHAHA!!!! π
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π€£π
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