Advance Praise for Fear of Description : "No matter where a reader begins in Fear of Description , the end is near and a beginning closer. As far as this book travels, it's always there to meet itself, though its trajectory is never predictable. There is also the ancient lament of the worker/writer, trying to sing a timeless song in an age of ring tones. Poppick's stop-motion ability to convey multitude in moments is genius--Merwin-like in its sensorial clarity, and, where the poet chooses formal restriction, Keatsian in density and bloom." --Brenda Shaughnessy, author of Our Andromeda Fear of Description is a bold book. Through Poppick's memories we relive that brief window of youth when friendship is the magic audience that grounds us. In a world that seems stingy and random, Poppick and his friends glean meaning from seances, road trips, shared economic anxiety, houses, and shaving rituals. Tears, like the dead, sneak up on them.

--Jennifer Moxley, author of The Open Secret.