SLEERICKETS

By Matthew Buckley SmithArts Books

SLEERICKETS episodes

January 31, 2025 Ep 180: AMA 2025, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Emily Dickinson’s fascicles

Susan Howe

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

Frederick Seidel

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

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

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

Inside Out 2 (2024)
Centuries by Joel Brouwer

Matthew’s movie list:

Acute Misfortune (2018)
A Glitch in the Matrix (2021)
American Honey (2016)
Boiling Point (2021)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Mope (2020)
Nope (2022)
The Shining (1980)
Sicario (2015)
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 4 min
January 21, 2025 Ep 179: Hill’s Last Lecture, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Geoffrey Hill's Oxford Lecture I know thee not, old man, fall to thy prayers
Charles Williams
Mark Morris
Church Going by Philip Larkin
Psalm by Paul Celan
Aubade by Philip Larkin
Robert Frost
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 13 min
January 15, 2025 Ep 178: All the Supposedly Wonderful Poetry, ft. Jonathan Farmer
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Penguin UK's write up of the book
Pieter Bruegel
Between the Shadow and the Soul by Lauren Groff
Rosemary Dobson
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Groff interviewed on Talking Volumes
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye by V. Penelope Pelezzon
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 4 min
January 07, 2025 Ep 177: Alice & Elijah vs. the Abyss, ft. Versecraft, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Versecraft starter episodes: Elijah's interview with Tim Steele and his episode on Shane McCrae's Eurydice On the Art of Poetry
Uncut Gems (2019)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
"The Four Horsemen" roundtable with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens
Ben Shapiro
Joe Rogan
Jordan Peterson
You are not serious people
Does God Exist? William Lane Craig vs. Christopher Hitchens
Matthew’s poem Creed for Atheists
Bertrand Russell
Topic of Cancer by Christopher Hitchens
Spinoza
Bill Hicks
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 4 min
January 01, 2025 Ep 176: A disaster that never arrives, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
I’m Starting to Think You Guys Don’t Really Want a “Village” By Clare Haber-Harris
Clare Haber-Harris’s substack Cartoons Hate Her
Ep 149: Owls in the Desert
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 4 min
December 26, 2024 Ep 175: What Voice Is, ft. Jonathan Farmer, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
Mary Oliver
Pity the Beautiful by Dana Gioia
The Art of Voice: Poetic Principles and Practice by Tony Hoagland
Derek Walcott
Frances Leviston
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Robert Pinsky
The Dream Songs by John Berryman
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill
Robert Lowell
As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Nobody Speak by DJ Shadow
32 Poems
Elegy for Estrogen by V. Penelope Pelizzon
Sonnet 18
The Face by Randall Jarrell
My Picture Left in Scotland by Ben Jonson
Carl Dennis
Promises of Gold by José Olivarez
poem where no one is deported by José Olivarez
Matthew Arnold
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 4 min
December 20, 2024 Ep 174: The Losing Position, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
My Grandmaster Mom Sneaked in to a Chess Tournament in London
Anna Cramling
Ding Liren
Ding Liren is CHILLING
John Cena speaking mandarin with an ice-cream
Grandmasters being SAVAGE for 8 minutes straight
Gukesh Dommaraju
Judit Polgár
Amélie Mauresmo
Donald Justice
Lee Herrick
Ep 172: Less Human Than Human, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
Matthew's poem Spontaneous Loss
Lying by Sam Harris

(and these things are mentioned in the secret show)

Philip Larkin, the Poet Laureate who never was
Gwen Harwood
James McAuley
That Mitchell and Webb Look: The Doctor and the Ice Cream Taster
Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert
Ken Bolton
Poetry Says Ep. 290 Australian Gothic
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 12 min
December 15, 2024 Ep 173: Swart Verse, ft. A. E. Stallings, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Stallings wrote in to add a note: “I am somewhat mortified to realize that I got Pemberly's situation wrong--of course it is in Derbyshire! Uggh. Don't know if there is a way to edit my Yorkshire comments out, or add a comment there. Austenites will have me for lunch. (Rightly so.)”
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Send your AMA questions to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
– This Afterlife by A. E. Stallings
– The Oxford Professor of Poetry
– Beautiful Fierce Cheats (review of Wetzsteon & Bachman) by A. E. Stallings
– A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye by V. Penelope Pelizzon
– Stallings on Cliche by V. Penelope Pelizzon
– Temper by Beth Bachman
– Silver Roses by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter by John Crowe Ransom
– Resume by Dorothy Parker
– Joy Division
– The Smiths
– Sakura Park by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Stankonia by OutKast
– After Wyatt by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Pemberly by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Septimus by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
– They Flee from Me by Thomas Wyatt
– Nightingales by Rachel Wetzsteon
– Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
– John Hollander
– West Chester Poetry Conference
– Ange Mlinko
– Richie Hofmann
– Housman’s expansion of Sappho’s epithalamium
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
58 min
December 06, 2024 Ep 172: Less Human Than Human, Pt. 1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Oops, I said the study appeared in Scientific Reports, which it did, but this is actually just a segment of the prominent science journal Nature.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Send your AMA questions to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
– Ethan’s Response to Ep 171
– Ep 171: Into the Black
– When Good Becomes Too Good: The Curious Case of AI Poetry by John Nosta
– AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably by Brian Porter and Edouard Machery
– The complete set of data and experimental materials from the Porter and Machery study
– The complete set of poems used in the Porter and Machery study
– ChatGPT’s Poetry Is Incompetent and Banal by Ernest Davis
– Ding Liren
– Gukesh Dommaraju
– Game Changer by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan
– Ep 101: Lucky Ruins, ft. Stephen Marche
– Justin Vernon with (also a bold revival of pop-music saxophone) and without (a real delight if you’re a Bonnie Raitt fan) Auto-Tune
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 9 min
November 27, 2024 Ep 171: Into the Black
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: Michael Jordan is alive. The knights are of course shaped like horses.
My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or here
For more SLEERICKETS, check out the SECRET SHOW and join the group chat
Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it’s easier). Thanks!
Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!
SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Ethan’s response to this episode
– Ding Liren
– Wei Yi
– Wei Yi’s poem for Ding Liren w/ Ethan McGuire’s literal rendering, transliteration, and preliminary translation into rhyming pentameter
– Gukesh Dommaraju
– Poetry Says Ep 263. Water-dragon blues
– Poetry Says Ep 97. What makes poets lucky
– World Chess Championship 2024, Game 1
– Dreaming of Li Bai by Du Fu
– Chess24/Chess.com
– Gotham Chess
– Take Take Take
– On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche
– The Stephen Marche episode
– The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
– Sorrow and Words by Li Qingzhao
– The Wild Swans at Coole by W. B. Yeats
– Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
– Ethan’s NVR newsletter
– An Alley in Avignon by Mary Jo Salter
– Ethan’s recent thematically cohesive commonplace book
Frequently mentioned names:
– Joshua Mehigan
– Shane McCrae
– A. E. Stallings
– Ryan Wilson
– Morri Creech
– Austin Allen
– Jonathan Farmer
– Zara Raab
– Amit Majmudar
– Ethan McGuire
– Coleman Glenn
– Chris Childers
– Alexis Sears
– JP Gritton
– Alex Pepple
– Ernie Hilbert
– Joanna Pearson
Other Ratbag Poetry Pods:
Poetry Says by Alice Allan
I Hate Matt Wall by Matt Wall
Versecraft by Elijah Blumov
Ratbag Poetics By David Jalal Motamed
Alice: Poetry Says
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 7 min