Minding the Darkness is the final volume of Peter Dale Scott's landmark trilogy Seculum. Following Coming to Jakarta and Listening to the Candle, it brings stunning, triumphant conclusion to a remarkable and sui generis poem. "There is nothing quite like these books," as the American Book Review remarked: "Scott's trilogy, only two-thirds completed as yet, is certain to be one of the most remarkable and challenging works of our rime." Scott's hypnotic epic poem concerns the political and the personal, and their darkly powerful relationships. With its riveting images, Poundian collage, tight three-line stanzas, and eerie, accumulated juxtapositions, Minding the Darkness fully hears out James Laughlin's opinion that "Not since Robert Duncan's Groundwork and before that William Carlos Williams Paterson, has New Directions published a long poem as important as Peter Dale Scott's."

‘I’m looking for the words and writing for those who can’t imagine the words.’ Mark Meynell articulates a heart pain that most of us simply couldn’t express. He connects strongly and immediately with fellow cave dwellers. We relive significant moments from boarding school, Uganda, Berlin and London. We visit the Psalms, Job and The Pilgrim's Progress. If you're after neat conclusions and a fair-weather faith, this is not for you. This book serves up gritty reality and raw honesty, but also the heartfelt hope that the author's brokenness 'can somehow contribute to another person's integration' and 'inspire their clinging while beset by darkness or fog or blizzards'. Contents 1 The mask 2 The volcano 3 The cave 4 The weight 5 The invisibility cloak 6 The closing 7 The way 8 The fellow-traveller 9 The gift Appendix 1 Managing the symptoms Appendix 2 Unexpected friends in the cave Appendix 3 Some words from inside the cave

Listen To The Candle is a booklength reflection on the poet's life. Listening followings Jakarta as the seconds step in a projected trilogy: Self-knowledge is more at issue than self-alienation; art perhaps overshadows politics; Rilke is more the poem's guide than pound.

Not since Robert Duncan's Ground Work and before that William Carlos Williams' Paterson has New Directions published a long poem as important as Coming to Jakarta! --James Laughlin

The story is told by Albert N. Wilmarth, an instructor of literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham. When local newspapers report strange things seen floating in rivers during a historic Vermont flood, Wilmarth becomes embroiled in a controversy about the reality and significance of the sightings, though he sides with the skeptics. Wilmarth uncovers old legends about monsters living in the uninhabited hills who abduct people who venture or settle too close to their territory.

The mind is the most powerful weapon of all . . . Imogen Peters knows she's a pawn. She's been abducted from Earth, held prisoner, and abducted again. So when she gets a chance at freedom, she takes it with both hands, not realizing that doing so will turn her from pawn to kingmaker. Captain Camlar Kalor expected to meet an Earth woman on his current mission, he just thought he'd be meeting her on Larga Ways, under the protection of his Battle Center colleague. Instead, he and Imogen are thrown together as prisoners in the hold of a Class 5 battleship. When he works out she's not the woman who sparked his mission, but another abductee, Cam realizes his investigation just got a lot more complicated, and the nations of the United Council just took a step closer to war. Imogen's out of her depth in this crazy mind game playing out all around her, and she begins to understand her actions will have a massive impact on all the players. But she's good at mind games. She's been playing them since she was abducted. Guess they should have left her minding her own business back on Earth...