{"id":35620,"date":"2025-06-27T08:27:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T14:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=35620"},"modified":"2025-06-27T08:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T14:27:06","slug":"garden-tools-poems-by-david-w-berner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=35620","title":{"rendered":"Garden Tools: Poems by David W. Berner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A Quiet Triumph&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The author of multiple memoirs and novels, Berner, turns to poetry in this luminous and deeply meditative collection that honors the overlooked textures of daily life. The poems, organized into three thematic sections: \u201cLandscape,\u201d \u201cLove,\u201d and \u201cLonging,\u201d evoke the rhythms of the natural world and the emotional undercurrents of a life well-lived. In \u201cDesert Prayer,\u201d the speaker thinks about tasting the red rocks and \u201cthe sweet spine\/ of the sagebrush,\u201d as he imagines swallowing the earth and communing with its sacred presence. \u201cBefore the Rain\u201d offers a subtle elegy for childhood wonder. Aging and impermanence are treated with clear-eyed tenderness. In \u201cEarly Enough,\u201d he writes, \u201cIt\u2019s early enough\/ for the sun to be a divine fire it can never be again,\u201d capturing the ache of fleeting beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Memory, in this collection, is not something to cling to, but something to carry gently. In \u201cThinking of My Death,\u201d Berner imagines his sister\u2019s ashes traveling with him to the grocery store and the dentist. Love, in all of its forms: earthly, familial, and divine, threads quietly through the work. \u201cIn the Garden,\u201d dedicated to his wife, balances presence and parting in the lines, \u201cBecause I\u2019ve always been, I say,\/ because I have always been letting go.\u201d Even in sensual moments, as in \u201cSunday Omelet,\u201d the tone remains intimate and sincere, favoring gesture over grand declaration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the book turns toward memory and longing, it reaches its most vulnerable register. In \u201cAshes from a Fire,\u201d Berner walks us through decades of a life in snapshots. The poem ends with a quiet revelation: \u201csnow has fallen overnight\/ like cinders from a fire.\u201d It is this understated wisdom that defines the book\u2019s emotional core. Berner\u2019s style is spare, unfussy, and deeply human. His short lines invite silence between thoughts; his metaphors rarely announce themselves. A celebration of the small, the sacred, and the seen, the book reminds readers that sometimes the deepest truths grow in the quietest corners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finishinglinepress.com\/product\/garden-tools-poems-by-david-w-berner\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.finishinglinepress.com\/product\/garden-tools-poems-by-david-w-berner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pre Order Now<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Coming soon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Finishing Line Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Price $20.99&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidwberner.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.davidwberner.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Author website<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Quiet Triumph&#8230; The author of multiple memoirs and novels, Berner, turns to poetry in this luminous and deeply meditative collection that honors the overlooked textures of daily life. The poems, organized into three thematic sections: \u201cLandscape,\u201d \u201cLove,\u201d and \u201cLonging,\u201d evoke the rhythms of the natural world and the emotional undercurrents of a life well-lived. In \u201cDesert Prayer,\u201d the speaker thinks about tasting the red rocks and \u201cthe sweet spine\/ of the sagebrush,\u201d as he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":35626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[7223,91,3328,178,723770987,723770988,1136176,422,1473,1008073,856121,309,349],"class_list":["post-35620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-author","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-david-w-berner","tag-garden-tools-poems","tag-indie-books","tag-poetry","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-9gw","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-27-8.22.37-AM.png?fit=413%2C572&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35620"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35627,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35620\/revisions\/35627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}