Spherical Harvest: New Voices from East and West

Elizabeth St Jacques is the author of Dance of Light and Around the Tree
of Light.

This collection, featuring the work of Generation X poets Mark Boller
and Eric Janzen, is a mixed bag. The 70 poems by Boller are a
disappointment; his love poems are shallow, his protest poems
unconvincing. The use of gimmicks, such as footnotes and name-dropping,
is no compensation for poorly written poems. By contrast, many of Eric
Janzen’s 120 poems are quite pleasing. Some are particularly effective
in their use of imagery (“everything here / seems to spit and /
jeer” and “gnarled fingers / extend like flowers / meeting the sun /
after the storm of the night”). One of the best is #16 (Janzen rarely
titles his poems: “There is a Drake / behind the rolling mist. / Eyes
closed / wings folded, / sleeping. / Like stone / his stillness hides
him.” This poet shows promise but needs to develop his craft.