Pitting Friends And Enemies - Part 5 - Sacked

The life of Donald Semenza on the mean streets of New York City.

First broadcast on 30th August 2004 BBC Radio 4
Produced by Pejk Malinovski and Sabine Hviid

Wise Guy

Minnesota - A History Of The Land

Plowman's Reel

What would life be like if humans still had tails? We visit an alternate reality to find out....

Tale of Tails

When the poet Frank Ormsby was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, his response was unexpected. He embarked on a newly fertile creative period, documenting his experiences and finding a voice in his poetry that he was beginning to lose in his daily communications.

His first act was to search Google - for jokes. "Which would you rather have, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. Obviously Parkinson's! I'd rather spill half my pint than forget where I left it."

As he discusses with Marie-Louise Muir, the illness has changed him. It's mellowed him. After a career as a school teacher, his daily life is now quieter and more solitary. There's a poetry, almost, in his pauses and silences.

Frank belongs to the generation of Northern Irish writers that has followed in the footsteps of Seamus Heaney and Michael Longley, His medication, he believes, has aided his creativity. But it has also induced hallucinations. He finds himself sitting on his own in his study but surrounded by people, by the ghosts of his mother-in-law and unidentified visitors. And he's also haunted by a fear that the earth will open up and swallow him.

But if you ask how he's doing, he writes, 
"I'll tell you the one 
about 'parking zones disease'.
I'll assure you that the pills seem to be working".

With readings by Frank himself and Ciaran McMenamin from The Darkness of Snow.

Photo credit: Malachi O'Doherty

First broadcast 26th November 2017, BBC Radio 4
Presented by Marie-Louise Muir
Produced by Alan Hall

The Art Of Living: Frank Ormsby's Parkinsons

\ \ \

It's water to me
(all under)

/ / / 

[thank you to Hannah and Chris
for making the moment]

\ \ \

Pitting Friends And Enemies - Part 5 - Sacked

Dominic Black