SLEERICKETS

NB: Oops, I meant 18th century. Also, Michael Haneke is Austrian after all. 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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize lecure – Leopards in the Temple" by Franz Kafka (couldn’t find any good links, so here’s the text Mark copy-pasted to me: “Leopards break into the temple and drink to the dregs what is in the sacrificial pitchers; this is repeated over and over again; finally it can be calculated in advance, and it becomes a part of the ceremony.“) – Returning the Sword to the Stone by Mark Leidner – Mark’s Substack: Opaque Hourglass – Recitatif by Tony Morrison – Funny Games (1997 & 2007) – Hamlet – Julius Caesar – Jack Handey – Andy Kaufman – Plato – The Gettysburg Address – Amleth – The Tower of Babel – The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – Harold Pinter’s 2005 Nobel Prize lecture – Chelsey Minnis – Juvenilia by Hera Lindsay Bird – A Field of Telephones by Zach Savich – Dogs of War by Mark Leidner 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: In Future Posts Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: Pretty Woman (1990) Pretty Woman cut scenes Insomnia by Elizabeth Bishop Love Poem by John Forbes A Gift by Don Paterson 90 North by Randall Jarrell In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz by W. B. Yeats Heorot by Ryan WIlson James McAuley Ep 198: Shark Week Dan Savage Footloose (1984) Secret show notes Bodies by Drowning Pool New Year’s: A Short Pantoum by Greg Williamson Cold Turkey by Joshua Mehigan Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn by Ai Weiwei Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway Amy Hempel Tired by Fenton Johnston Sonnet 130 Priamel Presto Manifesto! by A. E. Stallings In Memoriam A. H. H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter Kaufmann Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent by John Milton Ogden Nash The Brand New Catastrophe by Mike Scalise  Encomium Florida by Lauren Groff Travelling through the Dark by William Stafford After Filing for Divorce by Chelsea Rathburn  The Soft Black Stars by Matthew Buckley Smith Aubade by Philip Larkin Omnibus Review of Terrance Hayes, Charles Martin, Natasha Trethewey by Matthew Buckley Smith 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: In Future Posts Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – The Old Current by Brad Leithauser – Rhyme’s Rooms by Brad Leithauser – Forty-Five Years On by Brad Leithauser – Anthony Hecht – A. E. Housman – Charlotte Mew – Marianne Moore – Katsushika Hokusai – John Crowe Ransom – Robert Frost – John Milton – Iron John: A Book about Men by Robert Bly – Elizabeth Bishop – Chidiock Tichborne – Richard Kenney 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: In Future Posts Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – The Secret History by Donna Tartt – The Poet Eaters by Alice Allan & James Jiang – Better: On the Delusions of Writing Advice by Alice Allan – For John Berryman by Robert Lowell – Though I am young, and cannot tell by Ben Jonson – A Taxonomy of Conversational Forms 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: In Future Posts Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – moonandmouth, on Instagram, on X – Only Bad Poems Go Viral – Cataclysm Moves Me I Regret to Say 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: In Future Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: A for Alone by Curtis Sittenfeld Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li Our episode on White Noise by Emma Cline and The Assistant (2019) Aziz Ansari Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian Junot Díaz The mounting, undeniable Me Too backlash by Constance Grady Sexual assault allegations seem to be a badge of honor in Trump’s America. Was #MeToo an epic failure? by Carter Sherman On Heteropessimism by Asa Seresin The First Stone by Helen Garner The Women’s Room by Marylin French The Ghost in the Martini by Anthony Hecht Was Casual Sex Always This Bad? by Emily Leibert Men Going Their Own Way The 4B movement Secret show notes The Infinite Pussy Glitch: The Data Behind Dating as an Eligible Man in NYC by Lana Li Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi Adriana Smith Champagne Sharks Dan Savage The Wife of Bath's Tale Disobedience (2017) 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: In Future Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: Bob Dylan Boyz II Men A Complete Unknown (2024) Timothée Chalamet Malcolm Gladwell interviews Paul Simon David Sims John Ashbery Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan Joan Baez A League of Their Own (1992) Pete Seeger   The 2025 Super Bowl halftime show Dubliners by James Joyce Legs by ZZ Top   Megan Moroney profiled in The New Yorker   A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey Matthew and Cameron discuss books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Secret Show Chalamet's SAG Awards acceptance speech An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)   Secret show notes Jazz Chisholm Jr. So We’ll Go No More a Roving by Lord Byron Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson and the Simon & Garfunkel version To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick Jennifer Senior   The King (2019) 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: In Future Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit! 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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – Fugitive/Refuge by Philip Metres – Dispatches from the Land of Erasure by Philip Metres – Cameron’s new Substack, Minor Tiresias – What the Hell Is the Presidency for? by Jonathan Farmer – Svetlana Alexievich – The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry, Ed. Rita Dove – Lena Khalaf Tuffaha – Fady Joudah – Steven Salaita – Norman Finkelstein – Lawrence Joseph – Heaven Looks Like Us (anthology of Palestinian Poetry) – Nationalism and Social Division in Black Arts Poetry of the 1960s by Philip Brian Harper – Phil’s seelction of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry: “End of a Talk with a Jailer” by Samih al-Qasim https://behindthelinespoetry.blogspot.com/2007/07/samih-al-qasims-end-of-talk-with.html “We Travel Like Other People” by Mahmoud Darwish https://rihlajourney.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/mahmoud-darwish-b-palestine-1941-we-travel-like-other-people/ “State of Siege” by Mahmoud Darwish http://www.alkalimah.net/Articles/Read/8027 “Against” by Rashid Hussein: https://adimagazine.com/articles/three-poems-by-rashid-hussain/ “We” by Ghayath Almadoun https://themarkaz.org/we-and-4978-and-one-nights-by-ghayath-almadhoun/ “Write My Name” by Zeina Azzam https://www.arabamerica.com/palestinian-cry-from-gaza-write-my-name-goes-viral-in-poem-by-palestinian-american/ “Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying” by Noor Hindi https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/154658/fuck-your-lecture-on-craft-my-people-are-dying […] by Fady Joudah “Jerusalem” by Naomi Shihab Nye https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54296/jerusalem-56d2347ab7a20 “All Things Not Considered” by Naomi Shihab Nye https://mayazmi.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/all-things-not-considered-naomi-shihab-nye-women-in-poetry/ “Variations on a Last Chance” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha  https://themarkaz.org/lena-khalaf-tuffaha-two-poems/ 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: In Future Brian: @BPlatzer Cameron: Minor Tiresias Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Music by ETRNL Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – Ethan McGuire – Apocalypse Dance by Ethan McGuire – The New Verse Review – C. S. Lewis, Bronze Age Pervert, & Unserious Christianity by Ethan McGuire – Call Me the 21st-Century Ern Malley (How I Fooled the Poetry World) by Jasper Ceylon – A writer’s power can be rooted in real power or in fake power. Real power is better. by Naomi Kanakia – Links courtesy of Ethan: “The Vanishing White Male Writer” by Jacob Savage from the Matthew Schmitz magazine, Compact https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-vanishing-white-male-writer/ Other articles 2 "Liberal" Articles CNN, “Joyce Carol Oates claims White male writers are being shut out. The data disagrees,” Leah Asmelash https://www.cnn.com/style/article/joyce-carol-oates-white-men-publishing-cec/index.html For the items it links to and/or references The New York Times, “The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone,” David J. Morris https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/opinion/men-fiction-novels.html 2 "Conservative" Articles Unherd, “Publishing will never be fair,” Kat Rosenfield, https://unherd.com/2022/07/publishing-will-never-be-fair/ National Conservatism, “Dissident Artists and Publishing are Creating a New Culture,” Jonathan Keeperman https://youtu.be/2dHtMM-8myU?si=ewHgUj0wd6SAPlrt The only time I've ever written on the subject of the "sensitive young men of the literary alt-right": https://pomocon.substack.com/p/cs-lewis-bronze-age-pervert-and-christian 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

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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – Ethan McGuire – Apocalypse Dance by Ethan McGuire – The New Verse Review – C. S. Lewis, Bronze Age Pervert, & Unserious Christianity by Ethan McGuire – Call Me the 21st-Century Ern Malley (How I Fooled the Poetry World) by Jasper Ceylon – A writer’s power can be rooted in real power or in fake power. Real power is better. by Naomi Kanakia – Links courtesy of Ethan: “The Vanishing White Male Writer” by Jacob Savage from the Matthew Schmitz magazine, Compact https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-vanishing-white-male-writer/ Other articles 2 "Liberal" Articles CNN, “Joyce Carol Oates claims White male writers are being shut out. The data disagrees,” Leah Asmelash https://www.cnn.com/style/article/joyce-carol-oates-white-men-publishing-cec/index.html For the items it links to and/or references The New York Times, “The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone,” David J. Morris https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/opinion/men-fiction-novels.html 2 "Conservative" Articles Unherd, “Publishing will never be fair,” Kat Rosenfield, https://unherd.com/2022/07/publishing-will-never-be-fair/ National Conservatism, “Dissident Artists and Publishing are Creating a New Culture,” Jonathan Keeperman https://youtu.be/2dHtMM-8myU?si=ewHgUj0wd6SAPlrt The only time I've ever written on the subject of the "sensitive young men of the literary alt-right": https://pomocon.substack.com/p/cs-lewis-bronze-age-pervert-and-christian 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

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! For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – Frost Farm Prize, etc. 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

SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems. NB: (1.) Sorry for the abbreviated show notes recently. (2.) At one point I say “assonance” where I clearly mean “anaphora.” (3.) At one point I say “Larkin” where I clearly mean “Auden.” 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: – Frost Farm Prize, etc. 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

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 Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges 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

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: – Princess Shikishi – The Poetry Says ep where Alice talks about her translations of Shikishi – Sabrina Orah Mark – The Rattle Chapbook contest – Tim Green & Katy Dozier – Gotham Chess – Hikaru Nakamura – Moby Dick by Herman Melville – AlphaZero – Stockfish – A. O. Scott’s Poetry Lessons by Jonathan Farmer – Two Extravagant Teachings by Neil Hertz – On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt – The episode on the AI poetry study, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 – The episode on AI poetry with Carmine Starnino – The episode where I talk about luxury beliefs – Big Ideas, Little Pictures by Jono Hey – Richard Hamming – Paul Muldoon – The Symposium by Plato – Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) – Aunt Imogen by E. A. Robinson – Brian Brodeur’s essay on Robinson 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

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 Little Review – Tristram Fane Saunders – Tristram’s review selections: Useful Quotes Memorably Good Reviews Jorie Graham Reviews Tristram’s review of Jorie Graham – A. O. Scott’s Poetry Lessons by Jonathan Farmer – Alice’s Substack – On Fear by Alice Allan – Better by Alice Allan – David Orr – Anthony Madrid – The Rusty Paperweight: April ‘25 by Ethan McGuire – Alex Wong – The Adroit Journal – The Poetry Review – Birds, Beasts, and Flowers by D. H. Lawrence – On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt – Carol Rumens – Andrew Chan 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

NB: For those who are interested/concerned, I ended up deciding against the influential-editor-publication strategy discussed in the intro. Slightly long story, but in the end I just didn’t have the stomach for it. And don’t you start lecturing me about Chubby Checker. He did The Twist. The Beatles did Twist and Shout. So there. 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: – Literary Matters – Before the Bath by Ismail Kadare (Albanian, not Turkish!) – The University of St. Thomas in Houston – New Verse Review – Paradise Lost by John Milton – Red Scare – Grok – Chubby Checker by M. I. Devine – Regarding your workplace matter by Belinda Rule – Human Math by Tin Fogdall 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

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

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

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

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: – 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