The central project of Kevin Clark's The Consecrations is to explore what we cannot see-that is, how unseen realities affectour private and public lives. As Elizabeth Alexander suggests in the book's epigraph, "We walk into that which we cannot yetsee." Sometimes what can't be seen is political, sometimes it's spiritual, and sometimes it's hidden danger or hiddenpleasure. Mystery can seem both inside and outside. In part, the volume's many-angled focus is with a future that is neverrevealed until it is upon us. If we can't know for certain, how much can we know at all? How do we approach what we can'tknow-and how do we cope?