Sacred Scar: Poems

$9.95

by Scott Hales

Available February 17, 2026, in paperback and ebook.

“This collection made me laugh and made me cry, but more importantly, it helped me find beauty in the struggle of being human.” — Katherine Cowley
“Both saintly and Latter-day Saint, these poems find humor and holiness in belief, suffering, history, and family.” — Jim Richards
“Sacred Scar is both profoundly personal and generally appealing.” — Gabriel González Núñez

Book Description

Sacred Scar is a luminous, unflinching collection of poems that moves effortlessly between the sacred and the everyday. Drawing on the lives of saints, pioneers, ancestors, and the poet’s own family, Scott Hales explores the way faith, memory, and suffering shape a human life. These poems travel from ancient deserts to modern suburbs, from battlefield soil to baptismal fonts, revealing how holiness can emerge from pain, curiosity, humor, and the fragile work of living. With a storyteller’s eye and a historian’s care, Hales invites readers into a space where past and present speak to each other in striking, unforgettable ways.

At once intimate and expansive, Sacred Scar is a meditation on belief—how it breaks, heals, transforms, and returns. Whether confronting grief, wrestling with doubt, or celebrating the strange grace of ordinary days, Hales writes with compassion, wit, and a deep reverence for the human impulse to remember.

Praise for Sacred Scar:

“A brilliant collision of Catholic Saints, LDS history, pop culture, and the everyday. In these poems, the ghosts of the past are summoned by every street corner, every statue, every fence and canyon, every staircase, every mirror, and every mountain trail. This collection made me laugh and made me cry, but more importantly, it helped me find beauty in the struggle of being human.” — Katherine Cowley, author of The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet series

“Both saintly and Latter-day Saint, these poems find humor and holiness in belief, suffering, history, and family. Readers will appreciate the plainspoken clarity with which Scott Hales dresses the ‘scar of memory.’ To offset fear of being forgotten, he points to places where saints and pioneers walked, saying, look, ‘That’s my shadow there in the grass.’ Someday, his descendants will surely swap stories about Saint Scott of Cedar Valley.” — Jim Richards, author of Song for My Left Ear, Song for My Right

“Sometimes humorous, sometimes somber, covering topics that range from Catholic sainthood to Mormon history, Sacred Scar is both profoundly personal and generally appealing. Hales once again demonstrates his mastery of the poet's craft through his use of language and form. For those reasons, the poems in this collection are a delight to read.” — Gabriel González Núñez, author of Book of Mormon Sketches

About the Author:

Scott Hales is a writer, historian, and literary critic living in Eagle Mountain, Utah. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel The Garden of Enid: Adventures of a Weird Mormon Girl (Greg Kofford Books, 2016, 2017) and Hemingway in Paradise and Other Mormon Poems (Mormon Lit Lab, 2022). When he isn’t writing, he’s running. When he isn’t running, he’s thinking about it. He and his wife, Sarah, have five children.