SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good! Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– Ep 248: The Montreal Fiasco, ft. Ernest Hilbert, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

– Advice from an Unknown Poet

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

– MattWall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

Alice: In Future Posts

Brian: brianplatzer [at] gmail [dot] com

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.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good! Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– Diver by Alan Shapiro

– Last Act by Alan Shapiro

– King Lear

– Macbeth

– Hamlet

– The Oxen by Thomas Hardy

– Church Going by Philip Larkin

– High Windows by Philip Larkin

– Steven Wright

– Glory Hunger by Alan Shapiro

– Grasshopper by Alan Shapiro

– Where Rainbows Go to Die by The SteelDrivers

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

– MattWall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

Alice: In Future Posts

Brian: brianplatzer [at] gmail [dot] com

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.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good! Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– Steve Knepper's Thomist Poets reading

In the Waiting Room by Elizabeth Bishop
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

A Letter by Anthony Hecht

Couples Therapy

Clipse

Lament by Thom Gunn

Secret Show notes

We Hogs Need This, Pt. 2

On Being Butthurt by Elif Batuman

Joan Didion

Matthew's appearance on the Rattlecast

August Wilson

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

– MattWall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

Alice: In Future Posts

Brian: brianplatzer [at] gmail [dot] com

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.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good! Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– Join the Zoom conversation I’m having with Jimmy Pappas this Monday, June 8, at 7:00 p.m. US Eastern: Poems Against Hope

Zina Gomez-Liss

Can Art Teach? by David S. Wallace

Michel de Montaigne

The Pitt

Suits

Anthony Lane

J. M. Coetzee

A Few Words OnImproving Your Life Through the Great Books by Ethan McGuire

Secret show notes

Ep 246: A Case for Didactic Poetry, ft. Daniel Cowper

Why Don't People Like Poetry? What Poetry Do They Like? by Daniel Cowper

Night by Elie Wiesel

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois

Plato's Republic

Giovanni’s Room and Notes of aNative Son by James Baldwin

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

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

– MattWall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

Alice: In Future Posts

Brian: brianplatzer [at] gmail [dot] com

Cameron: Minor Tiresias

Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Music by ETRNL

Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

NB: A listener wrote in to offer another perspective on the titular story in this episode: “per your recent podcast—there were some key errors in the telling, not that those on the receiving end, including one who deserves far more acclaim than he ever got, and who certainly deserves more than being a punchline. I know Ernie bore no deliberate malice, but anyone who might gently push back has no opportunity to do so, and in A—’s case, never will. I find the notion that the reading was a front for a series of drug deals frankly offensive, even if none was intended. It was not A—’s fault that the guy who was supposed to open the library completely forgot and only bothered to check his messages a day or two later. A— was also completely gutted, and it intensified a path of sustained substance abuse, part of a series of relapses that ultimately claimed his life. He had some good years, though, and he organized some quite successful readings in previous years that the 2015 reading was supposed to culminate, had the venue not fucked up. I know this is less amusing. It is, however, significantly more accurate and fair to someone who deserves better than your scorn.”

SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good! Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

Ep 122: The Sore Thumb Crisis, ft. Ernie Hilbert

Poetry readings I have known by Ernie Hilbert

The Red Tower by Thomas Ligotti

This Lime-tree Bower my Prison by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Easton Press

Franklin Library

Fallingwater

The Henry Heckelbeck Collection by Wanda Coven

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Caligulan by Ernie Hilbert

ContraPoints: Cringe

Toynbee tiles

Poetry for Dummies

Savage Night at the Opera by Destroyer

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

– MattWall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

Alice: In Future Posts

Brian: @BPlatzer

Cameron: Minor Tiresias

Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Music by ETRNL

Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

NB: Apologies to all the people to whom I owe emails! Solo with the girls and trying to meet some deadlines, so I’ve been a zombie. I promise I’ll write you soon!

SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– The Frost Farm Prize results

– Why Don’t People Like Poetry? What Poetry Do People Like? by Daniel Cowper

– Ep 246: The Case for Didactic Poetry Part 1 & Part 2

– L’Allegro, Il Penseroso, and Lycidas by John Milton

– Odysseus’ Last Return to Ithaca by Pedro Poitevin

– XXIV by Philip Larkin

– Dune by Frank Herbert

– Dune (2021)

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

– MattWall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

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

NB: Another poem (one of Jonathan’s favorites) about having an orange and not wanting to kill yourself.

SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– Why Don’t People Like Poetry? What Poetry Do People Like? by Daniel Cowper

– Kingdom of the Clock by Daniel Cowper

– A Review of The Soft Black Stars by Sunil Iyengar

– On Not Knowing How to Start by Sunil Iyengar

– What He Really Wanted by Zina Gomez-Liss

– If by Rudyard Kipling

– Ep 245: The Tuna Incident, ft. Nida Sophasarun

– Giving the Devil His Due by Elijah Perseus Blumov

– September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden

– On the Inner Nature of Art by Arthur Schopenhauer

– On the origin of poetry by Friedrich Nietzsche

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

– MattWall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

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.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

Novice by Nida Sophasarun

An Incomplete Mentorship by Rachel Jamison Webster

Ellen Bryant Voigt

Advice from an Unknown Poet Ep 05. Bad Advice

Ep 244: Possible Horrible Truth, Pt. 1

Nida's poem Violent Femmes

Corniche by Les Murray

Secret show notes

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Paterson (2016)

A Quiet Passion (2016)

Yasujiro Ozu

Last Chance U (2016)

Friday Night Lights

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Reality Bites (1994)

Matthew's essay Where the Money Is

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

Film Quarterly

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

– Matt Wall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

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

NB: Sideways was actually co-written by Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne.

SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– Poems Beautiful and Useful, ed. Victoria Moul

– To Lucasta, Going to the Wars by Richard Lovelace

– Greater Metropolitan Shatador, ft. Victoria Moul

– The Matrix (1999)

– Jenny, the Halloween Spy by Lillie Patterson

– The Statue of Responsibility (the one about Man’s Search for Meaning)

– The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker

– Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

– The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

– The Optimists by Brian Platzer

– The Mattering Instinct by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

– The Last Messiah by Peter Zapffe

– The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti

– Inferno I, 32 by Jorge Luis Borges

– Sideways (2004)

– The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche

– Big in Romania, ft. Versecraft (the one where Elijah talks with Alice about The Denial of Death)

– St. Judas by James Wright

– The Mountain Pass, ft. Philip Metres, Part 1 & Part 2

– Tichborne’s Elegy by Chidiock Tichborne

– Happy were he could finish forth his fate by Robert Devereaux

– Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

– Ars Poetica by Horace

– Epode ii by Horace

– The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden

– Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

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

– Matt Wall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

– Helena Feder

– Nida Sophasarun

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

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.

Make a one-time donation (not tax-deductible)

For more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW!

Leave the show a rating here!

SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!

For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!Now give Brian’s book a 5-star review!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– On Marriage by Victoria Moul

– Literary Matters 18.2

– Not the Greatest Time to Be a Poet, ft. Horace & Friends, Part 1 & Part 2

– Handbook for the Recently Deceased Poet

– A dolphin for the Dutch; or, is there any verse culture without occasional poems? by Victoria Moul

– Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth

– The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky

– Rachel Getting Married (2008)

– Glee (2009–2015)

– Sinners (2025)

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

– Matt Wall

– Steve Knepper

– Helena Feder

– David Yezzi

– Victoria Moul

– Katie Dozier & Tim Green

– George David Clark

– Tristram Fane Saunders

– Philip Metres

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus Blumov

Advice from an Unknown Poet by Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer

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