SLEERICKETS

By Matthew Buckley SmithArts Books

SLEERICKETS episodes

August 31, 2024 Ep 160: Part of the Problem
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:
– Poetry Says Ep 270. Jonathan Farmer: I don’t think I love poetry
– Departing Afghanistan by William H. McRaven
– How-to by Anders Carlson-Wee
– Dogs of War by Mark Leidner
– My poem Stay-at-Home (It’s short!)
– Victoria Moul’s piece on Amanda Gorman’s poem
– Steve Knepper’s New Verse 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
– 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
44 min
August 25, 2024 Ep 159: For F***’s Sake Finally, ft. Versecraft
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:
– Poetry Says Ep 256. Antarctica
– Ars Poetica by Horace
– The inaugural issue of New Verse Review (ft. work by Zara, Victoria, Michael, Marly, Katie, JMW (da-da-dummmm), Ethan, Elijah, Amit, and Maryann Corbett, among many others!)
– The Iliad by Homer
– The Aeneid by Virgil
– The Metamorphoses by Ovid
– Their Lonely Betters by W. H. Auden
– Horace iii.25 (the one Elijah says is atypical)
– Horace i.11
– Burton Raffel
– Christopher Smart
– David Ferry
– The Greeks and the Irrational by E. R. Dodd
– The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
– Ion by Plato
– The Bacchae by Euripides
– The Oresteia by Aeschylus
– Charles Baudelaire
– T. S. Eliot
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
– 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 39 min
August 15, 2024 Ep 158: Revision & the Individual Talent, ft. Katie Hartsock
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:
– Wolf Trees by Katie Hartsock
– The Old and the New by Katie Hartsock
– Tradition and the Individual Talent by T. S. Eliot
– Kafka and His Precursors by Jorge Luis Borges
– An Organ of Extreme Perfection & Another Achilles (what has two thumbs and likes…)
– The Tradition by Jericho Brown
– Duplex by Jericho Brown
– Invention (essay on the duplex form) by Jericho Brown
– Ep 118: Obvious Boobies, ft. Ashley Anna McHugh
– Paradelle for Susan by Billy Collins
– Proofs and Theories by Louise Gluck
– Motherhood by Cecily Park
– The Circe / Mud Poems by Margaret Atwood
– The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
– Punishment by Seamus Heaney
– Eurydice by Caroline Duffy
– The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani
– Agamemnon by Aeschylus
– The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus
– Hamlet by William Shakespeare
– The Iliad by Homer
– The Aeneid by Virgil
– The Metamorphoses by Ovid
– The Trojan Women by Euripides
– The Trojan Women by Anne Carson and Rosanna Bruno
– Greeking Out
– Horace & Friends by Victoria Moul
– Alcestis by Euripides
– Richard Feynman
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
– 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 25 min
August 02, 2024 Ep 157: The A**h***’s Gambit
NB: The conversation this week is between Brian and me. At one point in the intro I mistakenly call him Ryan. Also, I use the word pinned casually and perhaps confusingly in a way that is unrelated to its technical meaning in chess.
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!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Hans Niemann, One Year After the Cheating Scandal by Jen Wieczner
– Elijah’s review of Midlife
– Zara’s review of Midlife
– Literary Matters
– New Verse Review
– The 2024 Candidates Tournament (to cut down on the length of the show notes, I’m not linking to individual games or to players who participated, including Gukesh D)
– The 2022 Sinquefield Cup (ditto)
– Big Red Son by David Foster Wallace
– Hans Niemann
– Magnus Carlsen
– Shernaz Kennedy
– Bobby Fischer
– Anatoly Karpov
– Gary Kasparov
– Mikhail Tal
– Jose Capablanca
– Vishy Anand
– AlphaZero
– Stockfish
– The Queen’s Gambit (2020)
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
– 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
July 26, 2024 Ep 156: Greater Metropolitan Shaltador, ft. Victoria Moul
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!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– Victoria’s newsletter Horace & Friends
– What is a poetry magazine for? by Victoria Moul
– On being underwhelmed by Victoria Moul
– On poetry for children by Victoria Moul
– Self-Portait as Othello by Jason Allen-Paisant
– Ion by Plato
– Julia Donaldson
– The Man with Night Sweats by Thom Gunn
– The Burning Babe by Robert Southwall
– Poems of Mr. John Milton (1645)
– Shearsman
– The Interpreter
– Francois Fenelon
– Philip Gross
– To Lucasta, Going to the Wars by Richard Lovelace
– The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
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
– 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 29 min
July 13, 2024 Ep 155: Furious Marginalia, ft. Christopher Childers, Pt. 1
NB: Yes, I realize that my statement “Nobody ever speaks in rhyme and meter” is in fact a line of iambic pentameter.
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!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse, trans. Christopher Childers
– The Eight Stages of Translation by Robert Bly
– Robert Frost’s letter to John Bartlett regarding sentence sound (couldn’t find a great copy online)
– Sonnets to Orpheus No. 21 by Rainer Maria Rilke (see also Chris’s translation below)
– Horace i.11
– Orchard Trees, January by Richard Wilbur
– Heraclitus trans. William Johnson Cory
– Diffugere Nives/Horace iv.7, trans. A. E. Housman
– J. Kates
– The Mysteries of Caesar by Anthony Hecht
– An addendum from Chris:
I emailed XJ Kennedy and asked him if this epigram is about Bly's essay & this specific Rilke poem. He denied it, but come on, it fits too well:
TO A TRANSLATOR

You've done it: Rilke talks American
Thanks to your perseverance, at the cost
Of music, rhyme and rhythm, stanza plan--
Indeed, in your translation all is lost.
This maybe more just for curiosity--my own attempt at the sonnet, just based on Bly's essay, though your point about the oddness of the central conceit is well taken. (We missed, or maybe didn't say as obvious, that earth as a school child who is reciting the poem of spring perhaps makes a bit more sense in Sonnets to Orpheus; and the idea of song after long silence is particularly appropriate to Rilke, at least from what I remember of the story of the composition of the Duino Elegies.)
Sonnet to Orpheus 1.21
Rilke

It’s spring again, and the Earth looks
like a child who’s worked to memorize
hundreds of poems. She lived with books
a long time, and now, she takes the prize.

A difficult teacher, that old man whose
beard we liked for its shaggy white.
We’re asking her the names of the blues
and greens, and she–she gets them right!

O lucky Earth on recess, play!
You’re It, and we–we’re in pursuit
of your smiles. Joy is the winner’s wings.

See?–all she learned in her teacher’s sway,
and everything printed on each deep root
and laborious stalk–she sings, she sings!
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
– 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 19 min
July 13, 2024 Ep 154: Cleveland Roundtable
NB: OK, so the names I couldn’t remember in the intro were as follows:
LM is how we all consistently refer to Literary Matters because we are so cool.
James is James Matthew Wilson, who comes up toward the end of the conversation, when I continually complain about him and Ryan and Elijah gently defend him.
Armen is Armen Davoudian, who requires no defense because everybody loves him.
Elisabeth is Elisabeth Clark, David’s wife and Managing Editor of 32 Poems.
Warren is Robert Penn Warren.
See notes below for more.
Finally, happy birthday, Philip Metres!
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!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The YouTube footage of the big Cleveland reading/conference/shouting match: Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– In Ghostlight by Ryan Wilson
– Newly Not Eternal by George David Clark
– Some Problems with Autobiography by Brian Brodeur
– The last issue of Literary Matters
– The continuation of 32 Poems
– The Sentence by Morri Creech—and my review of same
– Grace Schulman
– Jean Valentine
– Charles Simic
– Fred Chappell
– Stephen Dunn
– Christian Wiman
– Don Share
– Horace ii.10
– J. D. McClatchy
– Little Boats, Unsalvaged by Dave Smith
– Raphael Krut-Landau
– Michael Shewmaker
– Ernie Suarez
– Rosanna Warren
– Alex Pepple
– Lothrop Stoddard
– The nightmarish putto from the Ligotti-esque hotel where I stayed on Brian Brodeur’s recommendation.
– Wiseblood Books
– JMW (see Nota Bene)
– Dappled Things
– Katy Carl
– Bernardo Aparicio Garcia
– Joshua Hren
– Franciscan University Press
– Modern Age
– Catholic Imagination Conference
– Contemporary Catholic Poetry
– The Contemporary Poetry Review
– The Vision of the Soul by James Matthew 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
– 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 40 min
July 05, 2024 Ep 154: Cleveland Roundtable
NB: OK, so the names I couldn’t remember in the intro were as follows:
LM is how we all consistently refer to Literary Matters because we are so cool.
James is James Matthew Wilson, who comes up toward the end of the conversation, when I continually complain about him and Ryan and Elijah gently defend him.
Armen is Armen Davoudian, who requires no defense because everybody loves him.
Elisabeth is Elisabeth Clark, David’s wife and Managing Editor of 32 Poems.
Warren is Robert Penn Warren.
See notes below for more.
Finally, happy birthday, Philip Metres!
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!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The YouTube footage of the big Cleveland reading/conference/shouting match: Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– In Ghostlight by Ryan Wilson
– Newly Not Eternal by George David Clark
– Some Problems with Autobiography by Brian Brodeur
– The last issue of Literary Matters
– The continuation of 32 Poems
– The Sentence by Morri Creech—and my review of same
– Grace Schulman
– Jean Valentine
– Charles Simic
– Fred Chappell
– Stephen Dunn
– Christian Wiman
– Don Share
– Horace ii.10
– J. D. McClatchy
– Little Boats, Unsalvaged by Dave Smith
– Raphael Krut-Landau
– Michael Shewmaker
– Ernie Suarez
– Rosanna Warren
– Alex Pepple
– Lothrop Stoddard
– The nightmarish putto from the Ligotti-esque hotel where I stayed on Brian Brodeur’s recommendation.
– Wiseblood Books
– JMW (see Nota Bene)
– Dappled Things
– Katy Carl
– Bernardo Aparicio Garcia
– Joshua Hren
– Franciscan University Press
– Modern Age
– Catholic Imagination Conference
– Contemporary Catholic Poetry
– The Contemporary Poetry Review
– The Vision of the Soul by James Matthew 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
– 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 40 min
June 28, 2024 Ep 153: C’est moi
NB: I know, I know, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol wasn’t originally a play.
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!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The excellent Versecraft episode Giving the Devil His Due: The Value of the Romantic Anti-Hero
– Jason Gray’s new poetry podcast, Drunk as Poet on Payday
– ICYMI: My recent appearance on A Mouthful of Air
– Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
– The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov
– Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
– The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche
– A lot of other books and poems
– The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
– A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
– The Last Messiah by Peter Zapffe
– Teeth by Matt Cardin
– Prometheus (2012)
– The Boys (2019)
– Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin
– The God Who Loves You by Carl Dennis
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
– 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
June 21, 2024 Ep 152: Back in Your Head
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!
Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:
– The YouTube footage of the big Cleveland reading/conference/shouting match: Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– My recent appearance on A Mouthful of Air, w/ Mark McGuinness
– The recent episode of Poetry Says ft. Jonathan Farmer
– The recent episode of Poetry Says all about Horace iv.1
– A slew of poems (mentioned, not read!) from my dumb book Midlife
– Catullus ci
– Catullus li
– Sappho 31 (trans. Chris Childers!)
– Archaischer Torso Apollos by Rainer Maria Rilke
– The Unquarried Blue of Those Depths Is All But Blinding by Ashley Anna McHugh
– A Letter by Anthony Hecht
– A se stesso by Giacomo Leopardi
– Antigone by Sophocles, trans. Jean Anouilh
– Translation by Roy Fuller
– Halcyon by Alcman, trans. A. E. Stallings
– Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno cynarae by Ernest Dowson
– Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam by Ernest Dowson
– Cold Turkey by Joshua Mehigan
– Back in Your Head by Tegan & Sara
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
– 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 16 min