Paul Mills\u2019 pamphlet \u2018Out of Deep Time\u2019 is an imaginative and ambitious selection of poems about human evolution. Such a daunting all-encompassing theme might deter the faint-hearted, but Paul Mills has years of experience as a writer and both the confidence and skill to take it on. What he accomplishes works for me on a number of levels, the imaginative, the thought-provoking and the emotionally affecting. As he tackles this theme from its various aspects, he often employs a particular image or notion with which to explore the evolutionary process. There is \u2018The story of hands\u2019, \u2018The story of glass\u2019, \u2018A wriggle\u2019, \u2018The story of a line\u2019. But the one I focus on here is \u2018The fix\u2019.<\/p>\n
The fix<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>is to shape stones that bite\u00a0\u00a0 sharp as incisors is not to scavenge but become hunters a world shaped by fix\u00a0\u00a0 the power of fix is to invent needles\u00a0\u00a0 invent furrows on my hearth a poker shaped to a point in my freezer a package of lamb\u00a0\u00a0 ice yet I also notice what\u2019s not the fix and here\u2019s a guitar\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 paintings\u00a0\u00a0 patterns\u00a0\u00a0 games coins and swords flung to the waters\u00a0\u00a0 other rhythms <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What initially attracts me is the title, the use of a simple single syllable word to denote the process of human endeavour, the birth and continuing process of technology. It seems to sum up and take everything down to basics, giving us a perspective that\u2019s unpretentious and irrefutable.<\/p>\n In just a few stanzas it moves me from early stone tools to the contents of a modern freezer, via the \u2018carob\u2019s shade\u00a0\u00a0 among wild rubble\u2019, until we\u2019re considering the simple everyday tools of today, \u2018iron-handled shovel \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0iron tongs\u2019. On the way I\u2019m offered some deftly evoked images including making \u2018death happen where you want it\u2019. There\u2019s nothing sentimental or romanticised about the intent of this poem. It looks at the stark and practical reality of survival, right up to the modern day where \u2018we live by the fix\u00a0\u00a0 will die from it probably\u2019. And yet\u2026<\/p>\n there\u2019s the turn \u2013 \u2018what\u2019s not the fix\u2019 \u2013 and we\u2019re considering the artful, the decorative, the playful, the rejection of violence and functional commerce, \u2018coins and swords flung to the waters\u2019, all that gives life grace and a meaning beyond mere survival and relentless technological advance.<\/p>\n And all this done in 9 three line stanzas, using well-chosen, spare yet evocative imagery to cover the enormous ground from then to now and beyond, so we can \u2018hear them both\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the fix and not the fix\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Mills\u2019 pamphlet \u2018Out of Deep Time\u2019 is an imaginative and ambitious selection of poems about human evolution. Such a daunting all-encompassing theme might deter the faint-hearted, but Paul Mills has years of experience as a writer and both the confidence and skill to take it on. What he accomplishes works for me on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5v6l4-jR","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wayleavepress.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nunder a carob\u2019s shade\u00a0\u00a0 among wild rubble
\nseeing the wide plain\u00a0\u00a0 the herds of bison<\/p>\n
\nis to make death happen where you want it
\nis to make the clouds of vultures wait<\/p>\n
\nnot this of uninterrupted heat
\nnot wind\u00a0\u00a0 ice\u00a0\u00a0 but shelter and fire<\/p>\n
\njoin strong hands to flexible minds
\nis to make them restless for completion<\/p>\n
\niron-handled shovel\u00a0\u00a0 iron tongs
\nsawn logs\u00a0\u00a0 at my back a radiator\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hot<\/p>\n
\nsalmon\u00a0\u00a0 broccoli\u00a0\u00a0 bread\u00a0\u00a0 it\u2019s everywhere
\nwe live by the fix\u00a0\u00a0 will die from it probably<\/p>\n
\non the mantelpiece a peculiar jug
\ndecorated Navaho sphere-thing from Nevada<\/p>\n
\nsaying to me the fix isn\u2019t all\u00a0\u00a0 never was
\nthere is the fix held back\u00a0\u00a0 the fix in reverse<\/p>\n
\nsaying however far you reach you hear it
\nhear them both\u00a0\u00a0 the fix and not the fix<\/p>\n