SLEERICKETS

By Matthew Buckley SmithArts Books

SLEERICKETS episodes

July 25 Ep 256: The Giant Crab
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!
– Minor Tiresias on Cesar Vallejo
– In Future Posts on Lana Del Ray
– The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
– The Optimists by Brian Platzer
– The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
– In This Novel, It’s the Student Who Shapes the Teacher’s Life by Jean Hanff Korelitz
– The Kinda Sorta Real-Life Larry (My memory was slightly inaccurate. It appears this modest Wikipedia page would have existed even if Maugham hadn’t written a book kinda sorta about this guy.)
– Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty
– The clip in question from the Stone–Parker lecture
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
1 hr 3 min
July 25 Ep 255: Snake Eyes, ft. Measureless, 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!
– Measureless by Amit Majmudar
– Things My Grandmother Said by Amit Majmudar
– Lettre Sauvage
– The Lottery in Babylon by Jorge Luis Borges
– Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote by Jorge Luis Borges
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
1 hr 18 min
July 19 Ep 256: A Giant Crab
Solo ep on The Optimists by Brian Platzer
1 hr 18 min
July 11 Ep 254: What You Don’t Know You Know, ft. Timothy Green, 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!
– My essay on Macbeth in Portico
– Micah Mattix’s newsletter Prufrock
– Poems for Katie by Timothy Green
– Rattle
– Rattlecast
– The Poetry Space
– Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
– Voices from the Other World by James Merrill
– Iain McGilchrist
– James Pennebaker
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
54 min
July 04 Ep 253: A Little-Known, Much-Hated Poet
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!
– Pumpkin Chucking by Stephen Scaer
– The Sidewalk Steve page on the Transgender Map
– Alex Pepple
– Eratosphere
– Say Nothing but Good by Stephen Scaer
– Gold Is the Last to Leave by Stephen Scaer
– Backyard Triumph by Stephen Scaer
– Mentor by Stephen Scaer
– Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
– 4trans by Naomi Kanakia
– ContraPoints
– My weird omnibus: I Reviewed 99 Recent Poetry Collections—Here’s What I Found
– No by A. M. Juster
– Maine LD 1735
– Stephen Scaer’s comment on Maine LD 1735
– Make Believe by Stephen Scaer
– Johnson and Nietzsche on Criticism and Critics by Ethan McGuire
– Ozark Elegy by Ethan McGuire
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
1 hr 9 min
June 28 Ep 252: Advice from an Unknown Poet Wrap Party, 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!
– 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
1 hr 10 min
June 20 Ep 251: Maybe This Time, ft. Alan Shapiro
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
1 hr 27 min
June 12 Ep 250: Listener Crit #12
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
1 hr 7 min
June 05 Ep 249: We Hogs Need This, 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!
– 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
1 hr 12 min
May 29 Ep 248: The Montreal Fiasco, ft. Ernest Hilbert, Pt. 1
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
58 min