SLEERICKETS

By Matthew Buckley SmithArts Books

SLEERICKETS episodes

October 23 Ep 269: LM 19.1
NB: Right, right, right, actually “nights” and “ignites” don’t make a true rhyme but rather an identical rhyme.
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:
– Check out Alice’s SLEERICKETS Episode map!
– Pre-order the new book of short stories by my wife, Joanna Pearson!
– Buy 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!
– Watch the Think Symposium talks and readings here!
– Elijah’s book Against Oblivion is out now!
– Cameron’s poem Alternative Autobiography in Poetry London
– My conversation with Elijah at the Versecraft substack
– LM 19.1
– Tar River Poetry Fall 2026
– M. D. Skeen’s post on The Hotel Barth
– The Survivalist (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
– 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
– Alex McKeown
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: Poetry Says
Brian: brianplatzer [at] gmail [dot] com
Cameron: Minor Tiresias
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 39 min
October 15 Ep 268: That Other World
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:
– Check out Alice’s SLEERICKETS Episode map!
– Pre-order the new book of short stories by my wife, Joanna Pearson!
– 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 Think Symposium is this Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17
– I’ll be giving a talk Friday, October 16, at 5:00 p.m. and a reading with Boris Dralyuk and Sunil Iyengar Friday, October 16, at 8:00 p.m.
– New Verse Review’s Halloween Issue
– Zara Raab’s Review of The Soft Black Stars
– BlackRaven’s Review of The Soft Black Stars
– Groom by Austin Segrest
– The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein
– Song of Solomon
– Conversion on the Way to Damascus by Caravaggio
– The Man of Adamant by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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
– Alex McKeown
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: Poetry Says
Brian: brianplatzer [at] gmail [dot] com
Cameron: Minor Tiresias
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 21 min
October 11 Ep 267: Exceptions Have Been Made
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:
– Check out Alice’s SLEERICKETS The episode map!
– Pre-order the new book of short stories by my wife, Joanna Pearson!
– 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!
Stranger Things
The BFG by Roald Dahl
New Mountain Goats album Days
Matthew's essay Macbeth and His Problems
Kurzel's Macbeth (2015)
Cohen's Macbeth (2021)
The Forbes symposium
To the Bobbydazzlers by John Forbes
Salute by James Schuyler
Aidan Coleman
Towards a Contemporary Australian Poetics by John Kinsella
A Brief Outline of The History Of Australian Poetry by Alex McKeown
click here for what we do by Pam Brown
The Applestealers anthology
The New Australian Poetry edited by John Tranter
The New American Poetry 1945-1960 edited by Donald Allen
Jamie Grant
Kevin Hart
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
– Alex McKeown
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: Poetry Says
Brian: brianplatzer [at] gmail [dot] com
Cameron: Minor Tiresias
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 19 min
October 05 Ep 266: The Night Before
NB: Yes, yes, yes, of course I meant to mention Putin. Putin also, yes.
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:
– Pre-order the new book of short stories by my wife, Joanna Pearson!
– 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!
– Tar River Poetry is open for submissions!
– Literary Matters is also open for submissions!
– Elijah’s review of my chapbook
– Sunil Iyengar
– Ned Balbo
– Jonathan Fine
– Claudia Gary
– The DC Arts Center Poetry Series
– The Score by Oliver Cotton
– The Musical Offering by J. S. Bach
– The Unconscious by Sigmund Freud
– Hamlet
– Short, Sweet by Hailey Leithauser
– How to Moth by Hailey Leithauser
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
– Alex McKeown
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
1 hr 19 min
September 28 Ep 265: Cosmic Horror Book Club, ft. The Flummoxed, Pt. 1
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!
– Tar River Poetry is open for submissions!
– Literary Matters is also open for submissions!
– The Flummoxed by Ethan McGuire
– Apocalypse Dance by Ethan McGuire
– H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life by Michel Houllebecq
– La Gradiva (2026)
– The Thing (1982)
– Stephen King
– Thomas Ligotti
– Edgar Allan Poe
– At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft
– Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell
– In Amundsen’s Tent by John Martin Leahy
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
– Alex McKeown
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
1 hr 26 min
September 20 Ep 264: Potatoes, Small and Smaller
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:
– Come see me at the D.C. Arts Center Poetry Series on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 3 p.m. EST. w/ Ned Balbo & Jonathan Fine
– I’m going to see The Score Saturday the 26th, in case you want to see it too!
– 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!
– Hilary Menos’s review of The Soft Black Stars in The Orange County Review of Books
– Tar River Poetry is open for submissions!
– Literary Matters is also open for submissions!
– The Byron Bay Option: On (Not) Giving Up Poetry by Alice Allan
– New Verse Review’s Summer Sampler #2
– Boris Dralyuk’s note on Zina’s poem
– So This Is Love by Zina Gomez-Liss
– Thomas Jardine’s review of So This is Love
– Zina’s response to Jardine’s review
– The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden
– Horace i.37
– Sundowner by Hilary Menos
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
– Alex McKeown
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
1 hr 18 min
September 15 Ep 263: 100 kg, ft. Niall Campbell, pt. 1
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:
– Come see me at the D.C. Arts Center Poetry Series on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 3 p.m. EST. w/ Ned Balbo & Jonathan Fine
– 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!
– Hilary Menos’s review of The Soft Black Stars in The Orange County Review of Books
– Stephen Dunn broadside from Lettre Sauvage
– The Island in the Sound by Niall Campbell
– Poetry London
– The Odyssey (2026)
– The Return (2024)
– Emily Wilson’s review of The Odyssey in the LRB
– Emily Wilson’s review of The Odyssey in The Atlantic
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
– Alex McKeown
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
1 hr 7 min
September 06 Ep 262: Listener Crit #14, ft. Helena Feder
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:
– Come see me at the D.C. Arts Center Poetry Series on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 3 p.m. EST. w/ Ned Balbo & Jonathan Fine
– 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 Necklace of Harmonia, Sonnets of Thebes by Elijah Perseus Blumov, out now from Lettre Sauvage
– Tar River Poetry
– Helena Feder
– Cat Woman in Dog Country by Helena Feder
– Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
– Bright Star by John Keats
– This Living Hand by John Keats
– If the Poet by Stephen Dunn
– Helena’s interview with Stephen Dunn
– Carl Dennis
– Mizmor
– Bull City Press
– Ross White
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
– Alex McKeown
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
1 hr
August 30 Ep 261: Second-Wave New Formalism, ft. Quincy Lehr, Pt. 1
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 Necklace of Harmonia, Sonnets of Thebes by Elijah Perseus Blumov, out now from Lettre Sauvage
– Lyndon Johnson by Jonathan Farmer
– Near Hits & Lost Classics by Quincy Lehr
– The Raintown Review
– Carmine Street Metrics
– The West Chester Poetry Conference
– Poetry by the Sea
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
– Alex McKeown
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
1 hr 6 min
August 22 Ep 260: Peace & Love, ft. Robert Charboneau, Pt. 1
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 Necklace of Harmonia, Sonnets of Thebes by Elijah Perseus Blumov, out now from Lettre Sauvage
– Another man’s treasure by Steve Knepper
– Riddle by Joshua Mehigan
– Monologue & On the Necessity of Religious Belief by Minor Tiresias (Cameron)
– Poetics with Robert Charboneau
– If You Love That Lady by Maya C. Popa
– Maya Popa Is a Hopeless Romantic by Robert Charboneau
– Yvor Winters
– Ep. 52: Singsongy Chimey Doggerel, ft. Joshua Mehigan
– Ep 120: Picking up the Phone, ft. Dr. Taylor Byas
– Ep. 156: Greater Metropolitan Shaltador, ft. Victoria Moul
– Ep. 235: Romanticon Now ft. Paul Franz & Elijah Blumov, Part 1 & Part 2
– Ep. 242: Not the Greatest Time to Be a Poet, ft. Horace & Friends (Victoria Moul), Part 1 & Part 2
– On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats
– The Romantics by Maya Popa
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
– Alex McKeown
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
1 hr 10 min