Raphael's voice is a tool for sanity and survival in a world where hazards keep appearing on our path...The poems in...SPANGLING DARKNESS illuminate his love for life and engagement with the natural world and with the community. SPANGLING DARKNESS ignites the imagination for a new vision that allows the earth to mend. This is the gift of Raphael Block as a poet whose spirit resonates in our common humanity and binds us together." -J. GLENN EVANS, from the Foreword