My Tinnitus Created Mirth & Verse

By Johnny Crook

My interest in poetry is very odd. In 2007 I started to suffer, as I still do suffer, from tinnitus, but I had never heard of it back then. It was so bad that I went on sick leave and made all kinds of demands from doctors and others. I even had a head scan! A tumour was found and removed, but it had nothing to do with my tinnitus. Since then I have not been able to stop reading and writing poetry. Is there a connection? I don’t know. My tinnitus is still a big discomfort to me 24/7. My poetry writing is the best distraction for me, and for a few hours each day it helps me forget about the tinnitus until I stop. So write I shall until the end.

-

Johnny Crook’s strange condition didn’t stop him from writing wonderful prose. He compiled it in a book for ordinary readers and seasoned poets to appreciate. Read on to find poems of hope and inspiration!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jan 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728383606

Johnny Crook

In a family with three sisters, I was the youngest. Whilst still at school, I was in the Scouts and church choir, and I went to Sunday school. I did a paper round and delivered bread from a van. I left school when I was fifteen years old and started work straightaway in a garage repairing crashed cars. I did this for ten years, and it was hard. My favourite hobby was martial arts. My part-time taxi driving wasn’t an art. I was one of the last bus conductors in Leigh. Then in 1978 I joined the police, where I stayed for thirty years. I am now currently running two poetry groups, one in Westhoughton and another in Bolton, and I’m also the town crier. I do poetry readings as and when requested, public or private. I just started as a radio DJ for the local radio station Howfen Radio on the internet. Needless to say, my hour is titled “Poetry Corner”. Bolton FM Radio for the last four years has requested me for readings on their Community Corner programme, which is great fun.

Book preview

© 2019 Johnny Crook. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  01/16/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8361-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8362-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-8360-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019900520

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Potted History of Johnny C.

My Tinnitus

Tinnitus

I’ve Put My Life

My Days with Tinnitus

Tinnitus Number Threeish

Tinnitus in an Old Man’s Body

Tumultuous Tinnitus

When Tinnitus

Some Days

I Need

Holidaying with Tinnitus

A Patient Reader

My Working Life with the Greater Manchester Police (GMP)

4817 Out on the Street

A Policeman’s Lot

A Policeman’s Prayer

Advice for the Probationer

Every Policeman

Inspector Reece from Eccles Police

I Used to Be 4817, No. 2

PC F 4817 of Foxtrot Four

Policeman to Poet!

Strangeways Riots

The Police Came Knocking on My Door

Best Job in the World

Crime

Lost and Found at Eccles Nick

Andy White Text No. 5

A Text to Andy White

Andy White Text No. 7

Andy White Text No. 9ish

Andy White Text

Andy White Text No. 3ish

Text Message to Andy White, No. 4ish

Andy White Text No. 10ish

Seventy Years of NHS

A Broken Smile

A Heart of Stone

A Labyrinth

A Lot of Shakespeare Quotes

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Poet I Be

A Robin Sings

A Shaft of Wit

A Storybook

A Summer’s Day

A Walk in the Dark

A Whisper

All the Work

All

Another Place

Another Salford Royal Hospital Visit

Apple Blossom

Are You?

Auld Lang Syne

Autumn

Awake

Basically, Obviously, and at the End of the Day

Be Warned

Blood Donations

Bolton FM Radio

Boulevards of Bolton

Can I Be?

Can We?

Care to Be

Choirboy

Chores to Do

Common Quotes

Cupid’s Arrow

Dentist

Dichotomy Gone Mad

Fake Trump Quote

Fatty and Fattier

Four Lessons of Life

Fresh in the Morn

Halloween

Here and There

Howfen Town

I Hurt the One I Love

I Was Taught That I Ought

I Was

If It Weren’t for Us Coppers

If Poetry

Impress the Woman You Love

In Every Town

Jane, the Dresser of Heads

Melodious Monologues

Johnny C.’s Poetry

Keep On

Lacking

Let Me

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Make the Most

Mallards

Man and Dog

Monopoly

Mum and Dad

My Ann

My Bluebells

My Fire Is Dead

My First Butterfly

My Letter

My Mind

My Mini Trips

My Office

My Parents

My Poems, My Rules

My Time as Town Crier

Nesting Season

New York

Old Age

On Earth

On the Wind

One Should

One Song

Peace

Please Don’t Ask

Poems

Poet Provocateur

Poetry

Poets Are

Pomp and Pageantry

Rainbows

Reykjavik

Seaside

Self-Deprecating

She

Sinner of Sins

Single-Handedly I Held My Ground

Poetry Group Nonattenders

Some Days

Some Dreams

Sometimes

Sophie Growing Up

Sophie

Sorry

Starlings

Take a Walk

The Blackbird Sings

The British Empire

The Fire of Winter Hill, 2018

The Fire of Winter Hill, Part 2

The Greatest

The More

The River Seine

The Storm

The Tears I Shed

The Unwanted Poet

A World at War in the Skies Above

There Is a Tranquil Breeze

There Once Was a Woman

There Once Was a Poet named Auden

There Was a Time

This Cabin Crew

This Is Our School

This Is the Way

This Man Is Not All Alive

This Old Man Is Off to Bed

This Poem I Wrote

Till the End

’Tis in the Autumn

To All My Colleagues at GMP

To All the People I Have Offended

Too Many Knock-Backs

Town Crier

Trevor

Tribute to Leonard Sachs

Troop No Longer

Twitter/Facebook

Unrequited Love!

Walking

War

Warrior

We All Start from Zero

We

Weeds

When Cracking Safes

When I Am Dead

When I First Retired

When I’m Dead

When Yarn Bombing

When You Have

Whilst You Slept

Why Do?

Why Does God Grant Wishes?

Wikipedia Poem

Winston Churchill

Wisdom

With My

With The

Women of Westhoughton

Yes, There Were

You Are a Cad and a Bounder

You Came into My World, Ann

You Could

You Have No Idea

You Wait

You Will

Potted History of Johnny C.

In a family with three sisters, I was the youngest.

Whilst still at school, I was in the Scouts and

Church choir, and I went to Sunday school.

I did a paper round and delivered bread from a van.

I left school when I was fifteen