The poems in The Poet's Garage are driven by a sense of epiphany, beginning with an image or a provocative phrase, linking one to another until something new or unexpected emerges. Each one often begins by recalling a moment from the past or a recent observation. Tierney rubs several images together until a spark flickers, as in the poem "The Crossing" where memories of slurping Dairy Queen in the family Chevy and watching hobos in boxcars leads to images of homelessness and the narrator's own vulnerability.