SLEERICKETS

By Matthew Buckley SmithArts Books

SLEERICKETS episodes

June 14, 2025 Ep 199: Only Bad Poems, ft. moonandmouth
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:
– moonandmouth, on Instagram, on X
– Only Bad Poems Go Viral
– Cataclysm Moves Me I Regret to Say
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: In Future
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: Minor Tiresias
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 24 min
June 05, 2025 Ep 198: Shark Week, 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, 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:
A for Alone by Curtis Sittenfeld
Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li
Our episode on White Noise by Emma Cline and The Assistant (2019)

Aziz Ansari
Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian
Junot Díaz
The mounting, undeniable Me Too backlash by Constance Grady
Sexual assault allegations seem to be a badge of honor in Trump’s America. Was #MeToo an epic failure? by Carter Sherman
On Heteropessimism by Asa Seresin
The First Stone by Helen Garner
The Women’s Room by Marylin French
The Ghost in the Martini by Anthony Hecht

Was Casual Sex Always This Bad? by Emily Leibert
Men Going Their Own Way
The 4B movement

Secret show notes
The Infinite Pussy Glitch: The Data Behind Dating as an Eligible Man in NYC by Lana Li
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Adriana Smith
Champagne Sharks
Dan Savage
The Wife of Bath's Tale
Disobedience (2017)
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: In Future
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: Minor Tiresias
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 9 min
May 30, 2025 Ep 197: Insulting Everybody’s Dad, 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, 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:
Bob Dylan
Boyz II Men
A Complete Unknown (2024)
Timothée Chalamet
Malcolm Gladwell interviews Paul Simon
David Sims
John Ashbery
Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan
Joan Baez
A League of Their Own (1992)
Pete Seeger
The 2025 Super Bowl halftime show
Dubliners by James Joyce
Legs by ZZ Top
Megan Moroney profiled in The New Yorker
A Bar Song (Tipsy) by Shaboozey
Matthew and Cameron discuss books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Secret Show
Chalamet's SAG Awards acceptance speech
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

Secret show notes

Jazz Chisholm Jr.
So We’ll Go No More a Roving by Lord Byron
Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson and the Simon & Garfunkel version
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick
Jennifer Senior
The King (2019)
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: In Future
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: Minor Tiresias
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 1 min
May 25, 2025 Ep 196: It’s Always Today, ft. Philip Metres, 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, 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:
– Fugitive/Refuge by Philip Metres
– Dispatches from the Land of Erasure by Philip Metres
– Cameron’s new Substack, Minor Tiresias
– What the Hell Is the Presidency for? by Jonathan Farmer
– Svetlana Alexievich
– The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry, Ed. Rita Dove
– Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
– Fady Joudah
– Steven Salaita
– Norman Finkelstein
– Lawrence Joseph
– Heaven Looks Like Us (anthology of Palestinian Poetry)
– Nationalism and Social Division in Black Arts Poetry of the 1960s by Philip Brian Harper
– Phil’s seelction of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry:
“End of a Talk with a Jailer” by Samih al-Qasim
https://behindthelinespoetry.blogspot.com/2007/07/samih-al-qasims-end-of-talk-with.html

“We Travel Like Other People” by Mahmoud Darwish
https://rihlajourney.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/mahmoud-darwish-b-palestine-1941-we-travel-like-other-people/
“State of Siege” by Mahmoud Darwish
http://www.alkalimah.net/Articles/Read/8027
“Against” by Rashid Hussein:
https://adimagazine.com/articles/three-poems-by-rashid-hussain/
“We” by Ghayath Almadoun
https://themarkaz.org/we-and-4978-and-one-nights-by-ghayath-almadhoun/
“Write My Name” by Zeina Azzam
https://www.arabamerica.com/palestinian-cry-from-gaza-write-my-name-goes-viral-in-poem-by-palestinian-american/
“Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying” by Noor Hindi
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/154658/fuck-your-lecture-on-craft-my-people-are-dying
[…] by Fady Joudah
“Jerusalem” by Naomi Shihab Nye
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54296/jerusalem-56d2347ab7a20
“All Things Not Considered” by Naomi Shihab Nye
https://mayazmi.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/all-things-not-considered-naomi-shihab-nye-women-in-poetry/
“Variations on a Last Chance” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
https://themarkaz.org/lena-khalaf-tuffaha-two-poems/
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: In Future
Brian: @BPlatzer
Cameron: Minor Tiresias
Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com
Music by ETRNL
Art by Daniel Alexander Smith
1 hr 6 min
May 18, 2025 Ep 195: The White Guy Publishing Vortex, ft. Ethan McGuire, 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!
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:
– Ethan McGuire
– Apocalypse Dance by Ethan McGuire
– The New Verse Review
– C. S. Lewis, Bronze Age Pervert, & Unserious Christianity by Ethan McGuire
– Call Me the 21st-Century Ern Malley (How I Fooled the Poetry World) by Jasper Ceylon
– A writer’s power can be rooted in real power or in fake power. Real power is better. by Naomi Kanakia
– Links courtesy of Ethan:

“The Vanishing White Male Writer” by Jacob Savage from the Matthew Schmitz magazine, Compact https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-vanishing-white-male-writer/
Other articles
2 "Liberal" Articles
CNN, “Joyce Carol Oates claims White male writers are being shut out. The data disagrees,” Leah Asmelash https://www.cnn.com/style/article/joyce-carol-oates-white-men-publishing-cec/index.html
For the items it links to and/or references
The New York Times, “The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone,” David J. Morris https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/opinion/men-fiction-novels.html
2 "Conservative" Articles
Unherd, “Publishing will never be fair,” Kat Rosenfield, https://unherd.com/2022/07/publishing-will-never-be-fair/
National Conservatism, “Dissident Artists and Publishing are Creating a New Culture,” Jonathan Keeperman https://youtu.be/2dHtMM-8myU?si=ewHgUj0wd6SAPlrt
The only time I've ever written on the subject of the "sensitive young men of the literary alt-right": https://pomocon.substack.com/p/cs-lewis-bronze-age-pervert-and-christian
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 17 min
May 13, 2025 Secret Show Ep 144: Listener Crit #2
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!
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:
– Frost Farm Prize, etc.
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 42 min
May 12, 2025 Ep 194: Listener Crit #1
SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.
NB: (1.) Sorry for the abbreviated show notes recently. (2.) At one point I say “assonance” where I clearly mean “anaphora.” (3.) At one point I say “Larkin” where I clearly mean “Auden.”
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:
– Frost Farm Prize, etc.
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 19 min
May 04, 2025 Ep 193: A Big-Handed Beautiful Woman
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:
– The Aleph 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
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
47 min
April 24, 2025 Ep 192: Turn Out Your Pockets
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:
– Princess Shikishi
– The Poetry Says ep where Alice talks about her translations of Shikishi
– Sabrina Orah Mark
– The Rattle Chapbook contest
– Tim Green & Katy Dozier
– Gotham Chess
– Hikaru Nakamura
– Moby Dick by Herman Melville
– AlphaZero
– Stockfish
– A. O. Scott’s Poetry Lessons by Jonathan Farmer
– Two Extravagant Teachings by Neil Hertz
– On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt
– The episode on the AI poetry study, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
– The episode on AI poetry with Carmine Starnino
– The episode where I talk about luxury beliefs
– Big Ideas, Little Pictures by Jono Hey
– Richard Hamming
– Paul Muldoon
– The Symposium by Plato
– Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
– Aunt Imogen by E. A. Robinson
– Brian Brodeur’s essay on Robinson
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 11 min
April 17, 2025 Ep 191: Closing Time at the Horse & Groom, ft. Tristram Fane Saunders, 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:
– The Little Review
– Tristram Fane Saunders
– Tristram’s review selections:
Useful Quotes
Memorably Good Reviews
Jorie Graham Reviews
Tristram’s review of Jorie Graham
– A. O. Scott’s Poetry Lessons by Jonathan Farmer
– Alice’s Substack
– On Fear by Alice Allan
– Better by Alice Allan
– David Orr
– Anthony Madrid
– The Rusty Paperweight: April ‘25 by Ethan McGuire
– Alex Wong
– The Adroit Journal
– The Poetry Review
– Birds, Beasts, and Flowers by D. H. Lawrence
– On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt
– Carol Rumens
– Andrew Chan
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
55 min