"There is a quietness about Doug Spangle's voice that allows you not to realize how much he has to say (so quietly), what superb art his craft conceals (to the point of invisibility), how large is the experience he offers the reader. This collection accumulates the power, skill, passion and intelligence of his poetry to the point where I wonder, is anybody writing better than this?"

— Ursula K. Le Guin, author of The Earthsea Trilogy, The Hainish novels and Lavinia


Portland, Oregon-based poet Douglas Spangle has a keen sense of the overlooked detail. His poems are marked by a sweeping memory that charges and deepens their topography. His verse is full of empathy and engagement. Without a doubt, they are part of the Great American Poetry Book.

— Florian Vetsch, essayist, translator, editor, author, 43 New Poems


"At times satiric, at times comic, at times movingly lyric, this work invokes landscapes and human-scapes 'crowded with absurdities.' A poet for whom 'a new word is a new world,' Spangle modestly tells us his '...pen's a penny whistle." In truth, his pen is a full orchestra creating the music of a vast and varied world."

— Paulan Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate


"In A White Concrete Day, Douglas Spangle records the world he's lived in, as small as an ant highway on a grass blade and as large as Istanbul, the province of Saskatchewan, or the intersection of 21st & Powell. His passage is marked by a love of language, history, narrative and place. He isn't looking for transcendence but transcendence muscles in."

— Barbara La Morticella, Atomic Poet & host of KBOO FM's Talking Earth.

$15.00 incl. postage (within U.S.)

$27.00 incl. postage (2 copies within U.S.)