There are striking parallels between I Have Decided to Remain Vertical by Gayelene Carbis and The Drama Student by Autumn Royal. Both are new collections from experienced Melbourne poets; both think through women’s places in social and material contexts; both display an intense interest in material things and material places; both engage with works of art beyond their own pages.

I Have Decided to Remain Vertical continues the meditations and reactions to social life that were the focus of Carbis’s Anecdotal Evidence (2017). Carbis writes frequently of women in, or recently out of, relationships. More often than not, there is a quiet devastation moving through the speaker’s body. Even in company, ‘Afterwards / I feel bereft. / Trails / on my skin,’ as Carbis writes in ‘Snake’.

In terms of relationship as a theme, I Have Decided to Remain Vertical is beautifully paced as a collection; it rewards reading from start to finish. The poems disclose information slowly, and phases of the speaker’s life develop over a number of episodes. Time with an Egyptian partner dominates the beginning of the second section, and the relationship is fraught at every turn. Early on, ‘Not Marrying the Egyptian’ begins with this man under pressure from his family: ‘“Why won’t you marry her?” his mother says. “Why won’t you marry her?” echoes his brother.’ It ends with ‘“You’re not really with me.” “I’m still / here, aren’t I?” he says.’ ‘The Egyptian’ turns up repeatedly, the reader getting more detail each time, an evolving picture of the speaker’s feelings towards him, and towards herself in relation to him.