No Gathering In of this Incense

"By profession, Mark Rhoads is a musician, a choral conductor, and a historian of American hymnody. Now the voices of each, translated into the music of poetry, is audible in his poems, where he sings of Chevrolets and God, flawed parents and tragic children, desire and loss, seductions and death wishes and souls and fishing, all composed in harmony and discord. Carry these poems 'in your breast pocket/let them burn through/to make a scar/over your heart.'"

--Wayne Roosa, artist and art historian, St Paul, MN



"Mark Rhoads writes a kind of poem that pays attention to holy moments in earthly places: gardens, basements, battlefields--and, even, the upheaving breasts of a trio of cheerleaders on a sideline. He gives to each a richness and a dignity of the human reaching toward and beyond itself. In these pages you will meet a good man speaking good words. Settle in, listen, and let your heart reply."

--Paul J. Willis, author of Say This Prayer into the Past