SLEERICKETS – Podcast

Afleveringen

Ep 189: The Walcott Scandal, ft. Jonathan Farmer, Pt. 1
2 apr· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Derek Walcott
Ruins of a Great House by Derek Walcott
Disjecta membra
Ep 173: Swart Verse, ft. A. E. Stallings, Pt. 1
The Islander by Hilton Als
Walcott Withdraws From Poetry Professor Election by Sarah Lyall
Poetic Justice: Briton Says She Helped Taint Rival by John F. Burns
Derek Walcott, a Mighty Poet, Has Died by Hilton Als
Hilton Als: "I had this terrible need to confess, and I still do it. It’s a bid to be loved" by Emma Brockes
We Might Have to "Shut Down the Country" by David Remnick
The Gifts of John Forbes by Kath Kenny
In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden
Alice Munro’s Retreat by Anne Enright
André Malraux
Causeway (2022)
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 188: Counseling Out, Pt. 1
27 mrt· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Teachers Who Tutor
An Elite School, a Boy’s Suicide and a Question of Blame by John Leland
The Shame of Saint Ann’s by Caitlin Moscatello and James Walsh
Bottoms (2023)
Adrienne Rich
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
B
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
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Ep 187: This Was Poetry, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1
22 mrt· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Oops, guess it was more than ten years.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The last episode of Poetry Says
– The Paradise Lost episode of Poetry Says, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– The Iron Lyre by Elijah Blumov
– The New Versecraft Substack
– The Iron Lyre Playlist on YouTube and Spotify
– Why So Serious? by Alex Ross
– Aunt Imogen by E. A. Robinson
– Brian Brodeur’s piece on E. A. Robinson
– When I Mean I by Jonathan Farmer
– The episode with Alan Shapiro
– The episode with Naomi Kanakia
– The manifesto episode
– A Dress Rehearsal for the Truth by Alan Shapiro
– The Futurist Manifesto
– American History X (1998)
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Matt Wall
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 186: A QWERTYUIOP of the Mind
16 mrt· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Jonathan helpfully pointed out that Lincoln was (obviously) re-elected in 1864. In my defense, Google was very easily convinced that it was 1863 and readily supplied me with a date in November of that year.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– When I Mean I by Jonathan Farmer
– Locating Voice by Christopher Childers
– Too Horny for Hexameter: Ovid’s Epic Fail by Christopher Childers
– My essay on Joshua Beckman
– The Polyvocal Poet by Ryan Wilson
– What Voice Is, ft. Jonathan Farmer, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– Horace i.25
– Horace ii.20
– The Whirligig of Time by Anthony Hecht
– Heart of Autumn by Robert Penn Warren
– Western Wind
– Whoso List to Hunt by Thomas Wyatt
– Ozymandias by Percy Byshe Shelley
– Horace iii.2
– The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson
– The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Matt Wall
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 185: Don’t Drown, ft. Naomi Kanakia, Pt. 1
8 mrt· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Woman of Letters by Naomi Kanakia
– Is literary criticism just a school of sophistry? by Naomi Kanakia
– English class teaches students to be afraid of literature by Naomi Kanakia
– Is literature a false God? by Naomi Kanakia
– The new issue of Literary Matters!
– My poem Letter to a Middle-Aged Poet in First Things
– The Versecraft episode where we all traded poems, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– AWP 2025
– What is art? by Leo Tolstoy
– The Secret Show episode on What is art?, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
– Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology by Edmund Husserl
– Naomi’s review of James by Percival Everett in The Metropolitan Review
– Moby Dick by Herman Melville
– Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag
– The Case of the Wolf Man from the History of Infantile Neurosis by Sigmund Freud
– Mary Jo Salter
– The Norton Anthology of Poetry
– The Poem’s Heartbeat by Alfred Corn
– The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
– On Close Reading by John Guillory
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 184: Chaos Reigns, Pt. 1
25 feb· SLEERICKETS
NB: Sign up for Alexis Sears’s 92NY online poetry class now—deadline Wednesday, Feb 26!
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Sign up for Alexis Sears’s 92NY online poetry class now—deadline Wednesday, Feb 26!
– The Shape that Am I by Patricia Lockwood
– COINTELPRO: The FBI’s Secret War on Political Freedom by Nelson Blackstock
– Dan Deacon
– Antichrist (2009)
– Immersion (Piss Christ) by Andres Serrano
– The Motte-and-Bailey Fallacy
– The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
– The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 183: The Icy Élysée, ft. Alan Shapiro, Pt.1
21 feb· SLEERICKETS
NB: Alan’s most recent poetry collection is, in fact, By and By, from Waywiser Press
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– A Dress Rehearsal for the Truth by Alan Shapiro
– By and By by Alan Shapiro
– Proceed to Check Out by Alan Shapiro
– An Arrangement by Alan Shapiro
– The Season of Phantasmal Peace by Derek Walcott
– Hooks by C. K. Williams
– Donahue’s Sister by Thom Gunn
– Ep 169: Thunder & Rain
– On Convention by Alan Shapiro
– The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman
– One Today by Richard Blanco
– Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander
– Axel’s Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930 by Edmund Wilson
– Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
– This Is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams
– Fountain by Marcel Duchamp
– Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb by Wallace Stevens
– Unbound Edition Press
– Peter Campion
– Waywiser Press (Soon to become Waywiser Books?)
– Joseph Harrison
– Dora Malech
– Philip Hoy
– The Gabbro Head Press
– James Longenbach
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 182: Cherchez la femme
14 feb· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Even My Sex Is Dust (Review of The Penguin Anthology of Spiritual Verse, ed. Kaveh Akbar) by Zara Raab
– Ep 177: Alice & Elijah vs. the Abyss, ft. Versecraft Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– Churchgoing by Marilyn Nelson
– Church Going by Philip Larkin
– Were You There (traditional)
– Address to the Atheist by Phyllis Wheatley
– On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phyllis Wheatley
– Accepting the Disaster by Joshua Mehigan (poem)
– The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden
– Aubade by Philip Larkin
– Why I am now a Christian by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
– Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell
– Ross Douthat
– Jonathan Rauch
– Ep 64: The Rabbit Hole, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– Luxury beliefs are the latest status symbol for rich Americans by Rob Henderson
– The Daily’s interview with Curtis Yarvin
– Poetry Says Ep 186. Sensitive New Right Guy
– Poetry Says Ep 294. The American Ecstatic
– Tar River Poetry
– What is art? by Leo Tolstoy
– The Dark Mountain Manifesto
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 181: Against Sticks-&-Stones-ism
6 feb· SLEERICKETS
NB: Brian informs me that Yarvin’s interviewer was actually David Marchese, not Michael Barbaro, which might explain why I found him so much less insufferable than usual! Also, male mainstream liberal podcasters sure do all have the same voice, don’t they?
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The Daily’s interview with Curtis Yarvin
– Yarvin’s embarrassing thoughts on the Passage Prize
– Yarvin’s less less embarrassing thoughts on a Poetry Daily poem
– Alice’s two poems in New Verse Review
– Violent Femmes by Nida Sophasarun
– My short essay on the 32 Poems website
– My poem Melancholia in Ploughshares (just ask if you want to read it)
– Poetry Says Ep 186. Sensitive New Right Guy
– Poetry Says Ep 294. The American Ecstatic
– Sex Elegy by Terence Winch
– Tar River Poetry
– Nik Prassas’ transcriptions of Geoffrey Hill’s lectures
– Ep 49: Handsome People Can Be Sad, ft. David Kern
– What is art? by Leo Tolstoy
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 180: AMA 2025, Pt. 1
31 jan· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Emily Dickinson’s fascicles

Susan Howe

Charles Dickens
Our first AMA: Pt. 1 & Pt 2
Dave Eggers
Robert Penn Warren
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Walt Whitman
Heinrich von Kleist
Elena Ferrante
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad

Frederick Seidel

Anthony Hecht
HAL 9000
Merve Emre
The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry by Harold Bloom
Secret show:

Bob Dylan
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy's Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century by Vincenzo Barney
John Berryman
Timothée Chalamet
Hart Crane
Ep 80: The Marathon, ft. Skyzoo
Ep 23: Rhymes Without Beats, ft. James Nguyen
Charles Harpur
Banjo Paterson
A. D. Hope
Tenebrae by Geoffrey Hill
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Red Meat Republic by Joshua Specht
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Past Lives (2023)
Ikiru (1952)
Ep 178: All the Supposedly Wonderful Poetry, ft. Jonathan Farmer
Jeanne Dielman (1975)

Inside Out 2 (2024)
Centuries by Joel Brouwer

Matthew’s movie list:

Acute Misfortune (2018)
A Glitch in the Matrix (2021)
American Honey (2016)
Boiling Point (2021)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Mope (2020)
Nope (2022)
The Shining (1980)
Sicario (2015)
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 179: Hill’s Last Lecture, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1
21 jan· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Geoffrey Hill's Oxford Lecture I know thee not, old man, fall to thy prayers
Charles Williams
Mark Morris
Church Going by Philip Larkin
Psalm by Paul Celan
Aubade by Philip Larkin
Robert Frost
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 178: All the Supposedly Wonderful Poetry, ft. Jonathan Farmer
15 jan· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Penguin UK's write up of the book
Pieter Bruegel
Between the Shadow and the Soul by Lauren Groff
Rosemary Dobson
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Groff interviewed on Talking Volumes
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye by V. Penelope Pelezzon
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 177: Alice & Elijah vs. the Abyss, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1
7 jan· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Versecraft starter episodes: Elijah's interview with Tim Steele and his episode on Shane McCrae's Eurydice On the Art of Poetry
Uncut Gems (2019)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
"The Four Horsemen" roundtable with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens
Ben Shapiro
Joe Rogan
Jordan Peterson
You are not serious people
Does God Exist? William Lane Craig vs. Christopher Hitchens
Matthew’s poem Creed for Atheists
Bertrand Russell
Topic of Cancer by Christopher Hitchens
Spinoza
Bill Hicks
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 176: A disaster that never arrives, Pt. 1
1 jan· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
I’m Starting to Think You Guys Don’t Really Want a “Village” By Clare Haber-Harris
Clare Haber-Harris’s substack Cartoons Hate Her
Ep 149: Owls in the Desert
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 175: What Voice Is, ft. Jonathan Farmer, Pt. 1
26 dec 2024· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Mary Oliver
Pity the Beautiful by Dana Gioia
The Art of Voice: Poetic Principles and Practice by Tony Hoagland
Derek Walcott
Frances Leviston
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Robert Pinsky
The Dream Songs by John Berryman
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill
Robert Lowell
As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Nobody Speak by DJ Shadow
32 Poems
Elegy for Estrogen by V. Penelope Pelizzon
Sonnet 18
The Face by Randall Jarrell
My Picture Left in Scotland by Ben Jonson
Carl Dennis
Promises of Gold by José Olivarez
poem where no one is deported by José Olivarez
Matthew Arnold
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 174: The Losing Position, Pt. 1
20 dec 2024· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
My Grandmaster Mom Sneaked in to a Chess Tournament in London
Anna Cramling
Ding Liren
Ding Liren is CHILLING
John Cena speaking mandarin with an ice-cream
Grandmasters being SAVAGE for 8 minutes straight
Gukesh Dommaraju
Judit Polgár
Amélie Mauresmo
Donald Justice
Lee Herrick
Ep 172: Less Human Than Human, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
Matthew's poem Spontaneous Loss
Lying by Sam Harris

(and these things are mentioned in the secret show)

Philip Larkin, the Poet Laureate who never was
Gwen Harwood
James McAuley
That Mitchell and Webb Look: The Doctor and the Ice Cream Taster
Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert
Ken Bolton
Poetry Says Ep. 290 Australian Gothic
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 173: Swart Verse, ft. A. E. Stallings, Pt. 1
15 dec 2024· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Stallings wrote in to add a note: “I am somewhat mortified to realize that I got Pemberly's situation wrong--of course it is in Derbyshire! Uggh. Don't know if there is a way to edit my Yorkshire comments out, or add a comment there. Austenites will have me for lunch. (Rightly so.)”
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Send your AMA questions to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
– This Afterlife by A. E. Stallings
– The Oxford Professor of Poetry
– Beautiful Fierce Cheats (review of Wetzsteon & Bachman) by A. E. Stallings
– A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye by V. Penelope Pelizzon
– Stallings on Cliche by V. Penelope Pelizzon
– Temper by Beth Bachman
– Silver Roses by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter by John Crowe Ransom
– Resume by Dorothy Parker
– Joy Division
– The Smiths
– Sakura Park by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Stankonia by OutKast
– After Wyatt by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Pemberly by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Septimus by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
– They Flee from Me by Thomas Wyatt
– Nightingales by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
– John Hollander
– West Chester Poetry Conference
– Ange Mlinko
– Richie Hofmann
– Housman’s expansion of Sappho’s epithalamium
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 172: Less Human Than Human, Pt. 1
6 dec 2024· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Oops, I said the study appeared in Scientific Reports, which it did, but this is actually just a segment of the prominent science journal Nature.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Send your AMA questions to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
– Ethan’s Response to Ep 171
– Ep 171: Into the Black
– When Good Becomes Too Good: The Curious Case of AI Poetry by John Nosta
– AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably by Brian Porter and Edouard Machery
– The complete set of data and experimental materials from the Porter and Machery study
– The complete set of poems used in the Porter and Machery study
– ChatGPT’s Poetry Is Incompetent and Banal by Ernest Davis
– Ding Liren
– Gukesh Dommaraju
– Game Changer by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan
– Ep 101: Lucky Ruins, ft. Stephen Marche
– Justin Vernon with (also a bold revival of pop-music saxophone) and without (a real delight if you’re a Bonnie Raitt fan) Auto-Tune
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 171: Into the Black
27 nov 2024· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Michael Jordan is alive. The knights are of course shaped like horses.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Ethan’s response to this episode
– Ding Liren
– Wei Yi
– Wei Yi’s poem for Ding Liren w/ Ethan McGuire’s literal rendering, transliteration, and preliminary translation into rhyming pentameter
– Gukesh Dommaraju
– Poetry Says Ep 263. Water-dragon blues
– Poetry Says Ep 97. What makes poets lucky
– World Chess Championship 2024, Game 1
– Dreaming of Li Bai by Du Fu
– Chess24/Chess.com
– Gotham Chess
– Take Take Take
– On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche
– The Stephen Marche episode
– The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
– Sorrow and Words by Li Qingzhao
– The Wild Swans at Coole by W. B. Yeats
– Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
– Ethan’s NVR newsletter
– An Alley in Avignon by Mary Jo Salter
– Ethan’s recent thematically cohesive commonplace book
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Ep 170: New Advances in Quitting Poetry, ft. Versecraft
22 nov 2024· SLEERICKETS
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The Promise of Words by Laura Riding
– Elijah’s notes on the essay
– Beyond Poetry by Blake Smith
– The Republic by Plato
– On Portents by Robert Graves
– No Second Troy by W. B. Yeats
– Versecraft on Riding & Graves, on John Martin Finlay, on Cameron
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
- Luisteren Nogmaals beluisteren Doorgaan Wordt afgespeeld...
- Later beluisteren Later beluisteren
Laat meer zien

Afleveringen

Ep 189: The Walcott Scandal, ft. Jonathan Farmer, Pt. 1

Ep 188: Counseling Out, Pt. 1

Ep 187: This Was Poetry, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1

Ep 186: A QWERTYUIOP of the Mind

Ep 185: Don’t Drown, ft. Naomi Kanakia, Pt. 1

Ep 184: Chaos Reigns, Pt. 1

Ep 183: The Icy Élysée, ft. Alan Shapiro, Pt.1

Ep 182: Cherchez la femme

Ep 181: Against Sticks-&-Stones-ism

Ep 180: AMA 2025, Pt. 1

Ep 179: Hill’s Last Lecture, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1

Ep 178: All the Supposedly Wonderful Poetry, ft. Jonathan Farmer

Ep 177: Alice & Elijah vs. the Abyss, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1

Ep 176: A disaster that never arrives, Pt. 1

Ep 175: What Voice Is, ft. Jonathan Farmer, Pt. 1

Ep 174: The Losing Position, Pt. 1

Ep 173: Swart Verse, ft. A. E. Stallings, Pt. 1

Ep 172: Less Human Than Human, Pt. 1

Ep 171: Into the Black

Ep 170: New Advances in Quitting Poetry, ft. Versecraft