Dark Art of Darning, The / Moya Roddy

A search for connection and pattern underpins Moya Roddy’s second collection, the opening sequence of poems delving deep into family life, particularly the longing and grief for parents who through circumstances or temperament were often unpredictable or unavailable. Even in memory they cannot be pinned down: rather like butterflies they spread beautiful wings one moment, only to show a dark underside the next. Broadening her lens, she explores the fragile and fractured terrain of loss and change within community: neighbours gathered around a bonfire of old house timbers only to realise the significance of what they’re burning; cocaine falling like snow in remote villages. There’s gentle humour in the consternation caused when a house which has been traditionally white is painted turquoise by blow-ins or when women compete to produce the most babies for Ireland. A feeling of joy infuses poems about the natural world even as poppies rear their heads in defiance of concrete. Deceptively simple, The Dark Art of Darning is an emotionally complex collection in which carefully distilled poems reveal their insights slowly. 

“In The Dark Art of Darning Moya Roddy deftly explores the immensely complex web and weft of family affections, with all its tendernesses and searing contradictions. At times she focuses on the most humdrum of objects — a fine comb or a pair of kitchen forks— to evoke the powerful, unexpressed emotions of  childhood.  At other times her fine observations of the teeming natural life in her garden: owls, a shrew, a baby thrush or, intriguingly, ‘Schrödinger’s Hedgehog’, lead us to small, powerful epiphanies.  A short group of poems explore the experience of pandemic lockdown reminding us of how the silences alerted us to a beauty that would otherwise have passed unheard :— ‘This year the choirs are in the hedgerows/ singing, singing, singing……/They are singing our Hallelujah/ They are singing our Requiem/They are singing their hearts out’.” 

          Moya Cannon

“In The Dark Art of Darning Moya Roddy deploys a seamstress's skill in stitching together memory, family history, loss. Past and present is summoned in fresh and vivid tones, with a clear-eyed gaze that eschews sentimentality. This collection is fluent, moving, and full of generous insights into the human condition. A pleasure to read.” 

          Jessica Traynor