Outcropping

Choose-your-own poetic demise by lava

Eruption of the Volcano Vesuvius, 1821, J. C. Dahl / Donnybrook Road, 2019, Google

On 8 May 2021, I walked 45 kilometres along the northern fringe of Melbourne, a place of empty paddocks, timber frames and freshly poured sidewalks that reminded me of the suburbs where I grew up. Those echoes of the past mixed in with fictional memories of passing through, because most of the walk took place on roads I had diarised during my virtual bike tour.

It was a strange experience. Tough on the body, too. In the last stretch, jogging was more tolerable than the shuffle I had been reduced to. Finally, as the sun set and rain began spattering the asphalt, I hitched a car ride to the train station.

One reason for the walk was to visit an extinct volcano. These days the volcano is a nondescript slope with newly built houses cut into its flanks. As I moved towards its summit, I felt geologic time compress. A wall of lava enveloped the sea of black tile roofs and swallowed me.

That vision grew into a poem, “Outcropping”, published in Cordite Poetry Review. The title refers to the rock formations that reveal a country’s ancient past, and fragments of our personal histories that stick out in the landscape of the mind.

Here’s the poem — select an option to read on:

I made the poem using ink, a scripting language for narrative-driven games. Using it for poetry was hacky, but fun. I think there’s potential for other writers to explore.

Take a look through the whole Cordite issue. The theme—GAME—resulted in a lucky dip of poetic forms. For geology buffs, there’s also “Enderman’s Lament” by Hannah Jenkins, whose words form strata to excavate and sculpt.