A sequel to Peter Dale Scott's critically acclaimed long political poem Coming to Jakarta, Listening to the Candle is a booklength reflection on the poet's life. Listening follows Jakarta as the second 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. Like Jakarta, Listening to the Candle proves to be "almost hypnotically readable... [with] a seemingly digressive development that suddenly pulls tight as a net around the reader and the subject" (Alan Williamson, AGNI).