ARPress

ARPress is honored to Publish Songs for the Last Sunrise: Poems and Prayers from The Edge of Eternity by Tod Truettner. This book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARPress website.

Before the sun rises, there is always that quiet, holy in-between.
The hour where the world is still dark, yet light is already on its way.
Scripture calls this space waiting. Hope. Faith not yet seen but fiercely held. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5), and somehow, humanity keeps living inside that promise (building, breaking, praying, breathing) even when the night feels endless.

Life itself moves in these rhythms. Seeds are buried before they grow. Stones are shaped by pressure. Hearts are refined in valleys long before they ever stand on mountaintops. And it is here, in this sacred tension between suffering and redemption, that Songs for the Last Sunrise finds its voice. Not shouting from the heavens but whispering from the dust. Not pretending the road is easy but reminding weary souls that God still walks it with them.

This book steps into the same story Scripture has been telling since the beginning, that darkness is real, pain is heavy, and doubt is human… but dawn is promised. And even when faith trembles, even when prayers sound more like sighs than songs, the Light has already been declared victorious.

Author Tod Truettner is a builder by trade and a poet by calling shaping steel and wood with the same hands that shape prayers. His writing rises from a life forged in faith, illness, loss, and the slow, steady mercy of God. Tod has stood in the dark nights, walked through fire, and learned to listen for the whisper of grace in both the breaking and the rebuilding.

His first book, Creation to Christ, traced the arc of redemption from the beginning of the story to the foot of the cross. Songs for the Last Sunrise continues that journey, lifting the reader’s eyes from the ashes to the horizon, where hope waits like the coming dawn.

Tod writes for the weary, the watchful, and the ones still whispering prayers through cracked voices. His work is raw, reverent, and real (born not from theory), but from testimony. Whether in his workshop or at his writing desk, Tod carries the conviction that faith is lived with both hands: one on the tools of this world, and one on the promise of the world to come.

The book looks like a poetry collection. And yes, technically, it is. But calling it “just poetry” feels like calling a storm “a bit of rain.” These pages carry prayers, confessions, quiet wrestlings with God, and moments of stubborn hope that show up even when faith feels tired. The title alone hints at it, this is about endings and beginnings, darkness and light, and that fragile moment right before the sun rises again.

What makes Truettner’s voice stand out is how grounded it feels. He isn’t writing from a distant mountaintop with perfect answers. He’s writing from the workshop, the hospital room, the long nights where questions don’t magically resolve themselves. A builder by trade, he weaves that identity into the book in a way that actually works (no pun intended). Faith isn’t presented as something polished and display-ready. It’s something built slowly. Sometimes clumsily. Often with sore hands and tired hearts.

The structure of the book mirrors a spiritual journey. It moves through awakening, inner battles, daily labor, and the hope of eternity. There’s a rhythm to it, doubt followed by trust, exhaustion followed by quiet strength. One page might feel like a whispered prayer, the next like a cry yelled into the dark. That emotional range is part of the charm. It doesn’t pretend that belief is always neat and inspiring. Sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes it’s just choosing to stay.

Truettner doesn’t over-spiritualize pain. He lets grief, fear, and frustration breathe on the page. At the same time, he doesn’t leave the reader stranded in heaviness. There’s always a thread of hope woven through, even when it’s thin. Especially when it’s thin. The book keeps returning to the idea that God is present not only in church pews and mountaintop moments, but also in ordinary routines: hammer swings, coffee mornings, worn-out prayers whispered at the end of long days.

And that’s where this book quietly shines. It reminds readers that holiness isn’t limited to dramatic spiritual highs. It lives in everyday faithfulness. In showing up. In working. In waiting. In choosing kindness when it would be easier not to.

As an author, Tod Truettner comes across as honest, steady, and unafraid to admit weakness. He doesn’t position himself as a spiritual expert handing down instructions. He sounds more like a fellow traveler saying, “This road is hard sometimes, but you’re not walking it alone.” That humility makes the book approachable, even for readers who may not normally reach for religious poetry.

Songs for the Last Sunrise isn’t meant to be rushed. It’s the kind of book that works best when read slowly, maybe one poem at a time, maybe with coffee nearby, maybe with a few quiet minutes to let the words sink in. Some lines will comfort. Others will challenge. A few might hit a little too close to home. But that’s kind of the point.

This book feels less like a performance and more like a conversation. A late-night, honest, soul-level conversation about faith, pain, work, hope, and what it means to keep going when the night feels long. And when the last page turns, there’s a lingering sense that the sunrise, whatever that looks like for each reader, is still coming. Even if it takes a while to show up.

Songs For The Last Sunrise: Poems And Prayers From The Edge Of Eternity by Tod Truettner is now available for purchase via the ARPress Bookstore.

Songs for the Last Sunrise: Poems and prayers from the edge of eternity