Fogged Clarity Podcast

Harris Shper and Christine Hale strip it down for an intimate acoustic session. More The post The Hoof and The Heel first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

In an intimate interview, the prolific American poet discusses process, politics, and his acclaimed new collection, Beautiful Country. More The post Classics: Robert Wrigley Interview first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Portland-based songwriter and founder of Raven Marching Band Records Laura Veirs' exclusive acoustic session for Fogged Clarity. More The post Classics: Laura Veirs first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Scott Hightower “a murder of crows; a hell of guns” Oh, Vatican, have your bank clear our way to guns! We need them in our beauty shops, our schools, our class rooms, for our children with soft bodies. If we are going to transform our way of life into an arsenal, we need guns in… More The post WE NEED GUNS first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Will Oldham joins me again, and this interview gives me chills. In an inspiring and introspective conversation, one of America's greatest songwriters thoughtfully discusses tenets by which he works and lives, and why fear isn't in the cards. More The post Classics: Will Oldham Interview first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Musician Jeff Beam records three strange and lovely acoustic tracks for this exclusive Fogged Clarity Session. More The post Jeff Beam first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

The Grammy-winning violinist and his band recorded this lovely three-song set for Fogged Clarity. More The post Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Allison Grayhurst I know the vines that pin a desire to the dirt. I walk the miles of compulsive destruction and the weeping despair that laps all light from the stream. I sit bound to the spot. In and out of days with blood under my fingernails and hands that can’t stay still. Have I… More The post Torn first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Jacob T. McCall They say my hands are strong enough to draw blood on the bits in a colt’s

 mouth. They don’t notice
 how I will only eat collards 
 for a month before the post-date.

 As trainers pace chestnut geldings and smoky colts over   the Kentucky clay, training them for the derby, I… More The post Flipping (Bulimia) with Isaac Murphy first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Carl Swart Night has carried her breath from her Like gypsy moths dancing in snow, That floated down the lattice while she dreamt Of pink-tinged canna lilies opening at sunrise, And out in the field a hollow bell rang, Its song drifting over the red wheat. By the moon’s dim lantern, her mother’s Storm-filled throat… More The post Lament first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

The former Squirrel Nut Zippers singer records three acoustic tracks from her new album, "Madly Love." More The post Katharine Whalen first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Musician Katharine Whalen discusses the influences behind her new album, Madly Love. More The post Katharine Whalen first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Will Oldham joins me again, and this interview gives me chills. In an inspiring and introspective conversation, one of America's greatest songwriters thoughtfully discusses tenets by which he works and lives, and why fear isn't in the cards. More The post Will Oldham II first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Glenn Ashley Paterson In a forest of starlings there is no sound. This worries me. Should there not at least be a muttering? … I once read— this was how you died, in whispers that you did not hear— but I only heard the last blood returning from her fingertips. … Last night I spent… More The post Connective Tissue: Part II first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Peggy Dobreer Everything. Everything is burning, quiver and bow. All things coral or pink, held in a box with a fan on top. Even the silk kimono is burning, two cranes preening at the hem. The shamisen, its body up in flames even as the plucked note quarters, even as a hand strums the belly.… More The post Que esta queimando? first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Guillermo Filice Castro Naturally you can’t hear me Over those boys Who’ve hung a momentary eclipse Above our blanket With their soccer ball. In lieu of conversation We watch and shiver; they yell and grunt. What carries all of us through? A tremendous bounce Toward the sun. And just as fast, of course, The fall.… More The post Jones Beach first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Guillermo Filice Castro into a hole something      of the self always disappears light    mother tongue into mouths and this morning that bunch of hairs peeled off the drain and dropped into the toilet almost as mournful       a gesture as a wreath laid in the ocean Guillermo Filice Castro’s work… More The post Ritual first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Patricia O’Donnell Four young women make their way through groups of people on spread-out towels and blankets. This is the third day of unusually warm weather for June in Maine, and the beach is crowded. They find a spot close to the water, near the line where the sand is wet, and shake out their… More The post At the Beach, After the Fact first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr. Like divining rods that tremble at the sensing of some hidden wellspring I stretch my tired arms, lay them down, slowly, like a pilgrim with a heavy wreath of cross on my chest hoping to still the undead fountainhead of these Tears. There is a river deep kept raging by the… More The post Ode To This My Undead 2 first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr. In many ways she is more like the vase that holds the flowers she tends with backbreaking care in the backyard you’d never see her take off the ring her gnarled finger had outgrown; about time, maybe, someone taught her how to use search engines online Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr. is… More The post Miss May’s Predicament first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Marc Petersen Today, you don’t make it past Livermore. With a hundred miles to go, you pull off the freeway. You park. You get out. You watch traffic pass at eighty, heading northeast. You wanted to see where she’d lived. You imagine roads and barbed wire fences. It was a long walk. This is what… More The post What You Remember first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Brendan Constantine There are people our eyes can’t ride. My grandmother had an expression for it in Greek: Our eyes fall off them. Who don’t you see? What do they make plain instead? Have you thanked them? It’s probably relative. That is, not a question of beauty or character but rather, where you’re standing &… More The post The Dark Crowd first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Brendan Constantine I put my hand on her stomach and feel for the baby’s head. Earthquake season. After a beat, it finds my palm, nuzzles. I sense other movements, a fumbling in the dark of this woman. The couple downstairs are blind and clumsy. Their daughter is ashamed of her sight and pretends to stumble… More The post The Ultra Sound first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

The Oklahoma songwriter sits down to discuss music, literature, and shirts with three wolves howling at the moon. More The post Samantha Crain first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

A poignant session recorded by Samantha Crain while on tour in Europe. More The post Samantha Crain first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

The lead singer of the Portland band Starfucker discusses mortality, music, and his most recent album, "Reptilians." More The post Joshua Hodges first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Elaine Sexton I am for a poetry that makes nothing happen. I’m for a poetry that is too young to date, but too old to overlook. I’m for a poetry that wants to paint. I was thinking of those huge paintings by Francis Bacon at the Metropolitan last summer. There must have been about fifty… More The post Poetry & Smoke: A Manifesto first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Stephen Cramer St. Louis, ’44: Miles was 18, fresh out of high school, & seeing Bird & Diz on one stage was a daydream to rival his most carnal. When he heard those escalating exchanges, the opposite of gravity, it was like the first time he rode an elevator: when Diz hit floor three, Miles’… More The post Rising Sonnet for Miles first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Howie Good 1 A man jammed fistfuls of earth into his mouth. And why not when nations sell weapons to their enemies? The weather arrived late, a funeral with only four mourners. All his life he liked to wander through cemeteries. If everyone is doing it, someone said, it must be OK. 2 Probably the… More The post Poe in Love first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Stephen Cramer The 16 inch slash from his left nipple around to his backbone wouldn’t cripple his style, but having his chest muscles cut, his ribs pried apart so surgeons could root through artery & bone: that might. Still, they collapsed his lung, steered toward the fist-sized tumor trapped between his heart & spine… Dis… More The post Tempus Fugit: Couplets for Stan Getz first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Allyson Paty By what grace can two men stand in equal stillness while each minute settles like exhaust when it rises and drifts to the edge of the city. There is the man who musters his snake limbs. There are the stones that he shakes against his chest. Then you, Raimund. On what nerve do… More The post To Raimund Hoghe first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

"With such mayhem, lay your body down." Jeff plays three tracks for his Fogged Clarity session. More The post Jeffrey Paul Lupo first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Rachael Lyon Sometimes I wonder whether I was robbed of some rich diction, having grown up in a landlocked place. The smells of sea don’t make me sick for home, nor do the names of fish or coastal birds. Or this: a sound. That means one thing to me. But it haunts you, this land… More The post Bed the Monster first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Jeffrey Paul Lupo was born in San Diego, and has since divided his time between Southern California and Seattle. A recent graduate of the University of Washington, Jeff is in the process of moving to London to pursue a graduate degree at the London School of Economics. As a singer and songwriter Jeff has released two albums, You’re in Golden Light and The Proverbial Horse. More The post Jeffrey Paul Lupo first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

The most accomplished banjoist on earth sits down with Ben to discuss his life and craft in an exclusive audio interview. More The post Bela Fleck first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Sally J. Johnson You are the first person to see the beauty in a firefly without jarring it to watch it die. I buried calico quilts in the ground, for weeks and months after you died so you’d have something warm and home to sleep in. Can I still tell you the things I am… More The post Firefly first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Jameson Fitzpatrick All week I’ve been drinking in the morning instead of reading the news. Now a pretty shorthaired girl says we’ll be bombing Libya by tomorrow— but tonight there’s a rumor of fireworks, and a burly blond’s chosen my waist to wrap a bulging arm around. He’s a tank of a man, with thick,… More The post At a Co-op in Austin first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Jameson Fitzpatrick Years later, I ride my bike past his house and he’s washing his car in the driveway, the garden hose coiled at his feet, suds running up his arms. (Is his shirt off, or do I imagine that later, in the shower?) I’m surprised at how handsome he is. I’m eleven now, which… More The post The Babysitter first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Pamela Gross Loud in my ear, the boom of waves against breakwater, gusts that finger some storm-strung windharp as you hold your phone’s receiver out the hotel window to share a gale blowing strong, late at night, off the North Sea of Aberdeen. Wakened, wool-eyed, from sleep, I hear your voice: lost along a highway… More The post Wherever You Are Calling From first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Bogar Alonso Shear the wool off sky and man quiver s exposed to the mandible of monstrosities. From above, any pinnacle looks small. Staring down the chute of possibility what is determined is that culture is nothing more than fuzz on a peach. Look heavenward to little specks of source material – that no king… More The post A Firm Manshake (or a case of turbulence) first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Dolorean's Al James grabs his guitar and records a stirring acoustic session for the Clarity. More The post Al James of Dolorean first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Pamela Gross It said, Study the map. I did. I accepted the dare of the rugged terrain. Careful, always, not to crush the tender, abundant mosses adorning some stones much as wool dresses the boulder-stolid backs of sheep. The surface was mostly steep slope, cliff-face, and scree; often, hard to find footholds. Above, grew small… More The post Field Guide first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Dolorean founder and frontman Al James discusses some of the themes at work in the his band’s latest album, The Unfazed. More The post Al James first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

To mark the paperback release of his latest novel, "The Passage," Ben goes deep with acclaimed author Justin Cronin. More The post Justin Cronin first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

The Papercuts' frontman sounds off on Kanye, epiphanies, and the anxiety-quelling power of liquor. More The post Jason Quever first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Jason Quever gets out his Macbook, strips it down to the bone, and obliges us by recording two songs with just guitar and vocals. More The post Jason Quever of Papercuts first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

The author of "Vinegar Hill" and "Good Things I Wish You" sits down to discuss her life and craft. More The post A. Manette Ansay first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Singer and songwriter Chris Bathgate revisits the "salt year" that led to the creation of his new album. More The post Chris Bathgate first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Michael T. Young I keep believing in the fresh start, keep turning back as if to begin, but there’s no going past the push of hunger. As a child, I filled jugs at a natural spring, my hands rich with the scent of moss, the rocks gurgling, the smell of wet soil saturating the air… More The post Breadcrumbs first appeared on Fogged Clarity.

Michael T. Young He likes to repeat to himself a phrase from a Keats letter: I will clamber through the clouds and exist. It steadies him like leaning against trees, or brewing coffee to a thick brown resistance. It’s that kind of private refusal that helps him push on, dress the children for sleep, clean… More The post Scrawl first appeared on Fogged Clarity.