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:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– Vanderpump Rules Season 12

The Great Pottery Throwdown

Selling Sunset

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

Queen of Chess (2026)

how i be revising by Brandon Taylor

Sashay away

Coming down in Ohio by Dave Smith

Ep 234: Midlife Show-and-Tell, ft. Katie Dozier

Contrapoints Tangent: Liminal Spaces

Step wells

Secret show notes

Meanjin lives!

Tropical Skiing by John Forbes

Limiting Poetry’s Feedback Loop by Steven Searcy

Ep 231: Insidious Tendencies, ft. Steven Searcy

A Caveat-Filled Case for Atheism

The Via Negativa of R.S. Thomas on Versecraft

Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files Issue #265

The Siberian unicorn

A Holy Dread by R. A. Villanueva

Bill Hicks: Pro Life

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:

– 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!

– I’m reading this Saturday, March 14, at 6:00 p.m. at the Mettlesome Theater in Durham, NC

– Brian’s appearance on The Gist

– The Mysterious Case of Gothic Verse Narratives by Brian Brodeur

– Pre-order Sixteen Games of Hide and Seek by Stephen Bass and Steve Teare!

– Sofia Kavlin Castaneda of Unsent Letterbox

– Rosanna Oh

– Sonnet 130

– One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

– Poetry by Joseph Harrison

– Moira Egan

– Joe Osterhaus

– Robert Schreur

– Sunil Iyengar

– The Same City by Terrance Hayes

– Maps by James Baker Hall

– Michael Theune

– Kim Noriega

– Kim Addonizio

– Poetry Says Ep 294. The American Ecstatic

– Dan Kois

– The Martin Chronicles

– Lauren Wethers

– Reclaiming Jane

– Jordan Kisner

– Thresholds

– The Critic and Her Publics

– Michele Moses

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

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:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– My chapbook The Soft Black Stars is out now!

– Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
Queen of Chess (2026)

Poetry Says Ep 296. Gena Rowlands Poetics

Adam Curtis

Night by Ellie Wiesel

Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia

Marie Kondo

After Apple-Picking and Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Malcolm Gladwell

Tim Ferriss

Julie Steiner

Egg and Dart by Matthew Buckley Smith

Deceptacon by Le Tigre

The touch move rule

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Judit’s TED talk

My Best Game Ever: Vishy Anand vs. Judit Polgar

Judit Polgar tricks Magnus Carlsen in a game of blitz in the park

Nigel Short vs. Judit Polgar

Two Catholic sonnets by Julie Steiner

On Noticing How Many Pro-Life Men Are Smokers by Julie Steiner

Julie’s Sapphics thread on Eratosphere

Secret Show notes

The Sparrow by Mary Roia Russell

Dana Gioia

Weldon Kees

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Supernatural Horror and Literature by H.P. Lovecraft

Secret show notes

Meanjin lives!

Tropical Skiing by John Forbes

Limiting Poetry’s Feedback Loop by Steven Searcy

Ep 231: Insidious Tendencies, ft. Steven Searcy

A Caveat-Filled Case for Atheism

The Via Negativa of R.S. Thomas on Versecraft

Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files Issue #265

The Siberian unicorn

A Holy Dread by R. A. Villanueva

Bill Hicks: Pro Life

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

– Tristram Fane Saunders

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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:

– Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– Vanderpump Rules Season 12

The Great Pottery Throwdown

Selling Sunset

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

Queen of Chess (2026)

how i be revising by Brandon Taylor

Sashay away

Coming down in Ohio by Dave Smith

Ep 234: Midlife Show-and-Tell, ft. Katie Dozier

Contrapoints Tangent: Liminal Spaces

Step wells

Secret show notes

Meanjin lives!

Tropical Skiing by John Forbes

Limiting Poetry’s Feedback Loop by Steven Searcy

Ep 231: Insidious Tendencies, ft. Steven Searcy

A Caveat-Filled Case for Atheism

The Via Negativa of R.S. Thomas on Versecraft

Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files Issue #265

The Siberian unicorn

A Holy Dread by R. A. Villanueva

Bill Hicks: Pro Life

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

– Tristram Fane Saunders

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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:

– Pre-order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– Bad Lieutenant (1992)

– Will Diana

– Romanticon

– Literary Imagination

– Serpent Club

– Rathlin Island by Paul Franz

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

– Tristram Fane Saunders

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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:

– Pre-order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– All That Glitter by Katie Dozier

– The Poetry Space

– Rattle

– The Rattlecast

– Good Bones by Maggie Smith

– The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Colins

– Limiting Poetry’s Feedback Loop by Steven Searcy

– Ep 231: Insidious Tendencies, ft. Steven Searcy

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

– Tristram Fane Saunders

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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

NB: Oops, I forgot about 2.5, which is the extremely brief wedding scene, which includes both R & J but which is also only barely a scene and which thus is very easy to forget.

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:

– Pre-order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– Romeo and Juliet

– A Midsummer Night’s Dream

– Macbeth

– Hamlet

– Twelfth Night

– & Juliet

– Romeo and Juliet (1996)

– Romeo and Juliet (1968)

– Ep 224: Broadway Omnibus

– Grendel by John Gardner

– Micah Mattix

– Noises Off by Michael Frayn

– Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

– Endgame by Samuel Beckett

– Fargo (1996)

– Barton Fink (1991)

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

– Tristram Fane Saunders

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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:

– Pre-order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– Only Sing by John Berryman, ed. Shane McCrae

– New and Collected Hell by Shane McCrae

– Dream Song 26 by John Berryman

– Dream Song 14 by John Berryman

– Dream Song 29 by John Berryman

– Dream Song: For Louis MacNeice by John Berryman

– A Most Marvelous Piece of Luck by Greg Williamson

– Cynara by Ernest Dowson

– Shadow of the Colossus

– Fallout

– Fallout (TV series)

– Robert Frost’s original inaugural poem, Dedication

– Democracy and Poetry by Robert Penn Warren

– Fall of the Star High School Running Back by The Mountain Goats

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

– Tristram Fane Saunders

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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:

– Pre-order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– A Crown for the Kings by Zina Gomez-Liss

– The things you’ve said and done: Jeremy Wikeley’s review of Midlife

– Limiting Poetry’s Feedback Loop by Steven Searcy

– Below the Brightness by Steven Searcy

– On Fear by Alice Allan

– The Christian Poetry Comeback by Paul J. Pastor

– Can Poetry Matter? by Dana Gioia

– Poetry as Enchantment by Dana Gioia

– When I consider how my light is spent by John Milton

– On first looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats

– Decorum by Stephen Dunn

– Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

– The Little Review

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

– Tristram Fane Saunders

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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:

– Pre-order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good!

– Let me know if you’d like a review copy of my forthcoming chapbook The Soft Black Stars: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

– The Christian Poetry Comeback by Paul J. Pastor

– Can Poetry Matter? by Dana Gioia

– Poetry as Enchantment by Dana Gioia

– The Colosseum Book of Contemporary Narrative Verse by Sunil Iyengar

– Bill Hicks

– Air Force Academy cancels lecture after discovering speaker disparaged Trump by Mary Shinn

– CC hosts speaker whose appearance at USAFA was canceled by Ashley Eberhardt

– Intimacy by Paisley Rekdal

– To Crawl Under the Earth: The Persistence of Expansive Poetry by Brian Brodeur

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

Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:

Poetry Says by Alice Allan

I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall

Versecraft by Elijah Perseus 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