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  • 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

  • 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

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  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • NB: For those who are interested/concerned, I ended up deciding against the influential-editor-publication strategy discussed in the intro. Slightly long story, but in the end I just didn’t have the stomach for it. And don’t you start lecturing me about Chubby Checker. He did The Twist. The Beatles did Twist and Shout. So there.

    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:

    – Literary Matters

    – Before the Bath by Ismail Kadare (Albanian, not Turkish!)

    – The University of St. Thomas in Houston

    – New Verse Review

    – Paradise Lost by John Milton

    – Red Scare

    – Grok

    – Chubby Checker by M. I. Devine

    – Regarding your workplace matter by Belinda Rule

    – Human Math by Tin Fogdall

    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

  • 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:

    Derek Walcott

    Ruins of a Great House by Derek Walcott

    Disjecta membra

    Ep 173: Swart Verse, ft. A. E. Stallings, Pt. 1

    The Islander by Hilton Als

    Walcott Withdraws From Poetry Professor Election by Sarah Lyall

    Poetic Justice: Briton Says She Helped Taint Rival by John F. Burns

    Derek Walcott, a Mighty Poet, Has Died by Hilton Als

    Hilton Als: "I had this terrible need to confess, and I still do it. It’s a bid to be loved" by Emma Brockes

    We Might Have to "Shut Down the Country" by David Remnick

    The Gifts of John Forbes by Kath Kenny

    In Memory of W. B. Yeats by W. H. Auden

    Alice Munro’s Retreat by Anne Enright

    André Malraux

    Causeway (2022)

    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

  • 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:

    Teachers Who Tutor

    An Elite School, a Boy’s Suicide and a Question of Blame by John Leland

    The Shame of Saint Ann’s by Caitlin Moscatello and James Walsh

    Bottoms (2023)

    Adrienne Rich

    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

    B

    Cameron: CameronWTC [at] hotmail [dot] com

    Matthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com

    Music by ETRNL

    Art by Daniel Alexander Smith

  • SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.

    NB: Oops, guess it was more than ten years.

    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 last episode of Poetry Says

    – The Paradise Lost episode of Poetry Says, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

    – The Iron Lyre by Elijah Blumov

    – The New Versecraft Substack

    – The Iron Lyre Playlist on YouTube and Spotify

    – Why So Serious? by Alex Ross

    – Aunt Imogen by E. A. Robinson

    – Brian Brodeur’s piece on E. A. Robinson

    – When I Mean I by Jonathan Farmer

    – The episode with Alan Shapiro

    – The episode with Naomi Kanakia

    – The manifesto episode

    – A Dress Rehearsal for the Truth by Alan Shapiro

    – The Futurist Manifesto

    – American History X (1998)

    Frequently mentioned names:

    – Joshua Mehigan

    – Shane McCrae

    – A. E. Stallings

    – Ryan Wilson

    – Morri Creech

    – Austin Allen

    – Jonathan Farmer

    – Zara Raab

    – Matt Wall

    – 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

  • SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems.

    NB: Jonathan helpfully pointed out that Lincoln was (obviously) re-elected in 1864. In my defense, Google was very easily convinced that it was 1863 and readily supplied me with a date in November of that year.

    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:

    – When I Mean I by Jonathan Farmer

    – Locating Voice by Christopher Childers

    – Too Horny for Hexameter: Ovid’s Epic Fail by Christopher Childers

    – My essay on Joshua Beckman

    – The Polyvocal Poet by Ryan Wilson

    – What Voice Is, ft. Jonathan Farmer, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

    – Horace i.25

    – Horace ii.20

    – The Whirligig of Time by Anthony Hecht

    – Heart of Autumn by Robert Penn Warren

    – Western Wind

    – Whoso List to Hunt by Thomas Wyatt

    – Ozymandias by Percy Byshe Shelley

    – Horace iii.2

    – The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

    – The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

    Frequently mentioned names:

    – Joshua Mehigan

    – Shane McCrae

    – A. E. Stallings

    – Ryan Wilson

    – Morri Creech

    – Austin Allen

    – Jonathan Farmer

    – Zara Raab

    – Matt Wall

    – 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

  • 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:

    – Woman of Letters by Naomi Kanakia

    – Is literary criticism just a school of sophistry? by Naomi Kanakia

    – English class teaches students to be afraid of literature by Naomi Kanakia

    – Is literature a false God? by Naomi Kanakia

    – The new issue of Literary Matters!

    – My poem Letter to a Middle-Aged Poet in First Things

    – The Versecraft episode where we all traded poems, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

    – AWP 2025

    – What is art? by Leo Tolstoy

    – The Secret Show episode on What is art?, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

    – The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

    – Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology by Edmund Husserl

    – Naomi’s review of James by Percival Everett in The Metropolitan Review

    – Moby Dick by Herman Melville

    – Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag

    – The Case of the Wolf Man from the History of Infantile Neurosis by Sigmund Freud

    – Mary Jo Salter

    – The Norton Anthology of Poetry

    – The Poem’s Heartbeat by Alfred Corn

    – The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

    – On Close Reading by John Guillory

    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

  • NB: Sign up for Alexis Sears’s 92NY online poetry class now—deadline Wednesday, Feb 26!

    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:

    – Sign up for Alexis Sears’s 92NY online poetry class now—deadline Wednesday, Feb 26!

    – The Shape that Am I by Patricia Lockwood

    – COINTELPRO: The FBI’s Secret War on Political Freedom by Nelson Blackstock

    – Dan Deacon

    – Antichrist (2009)

    – Immersion (Piss Christ) by Andres Serrano

    – The Motte-and-Bailey Fallacy

    – The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

    – The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

    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

  • NB: Alan’s most recent poetry collection is, in fact, By and By, from Waywiser Press

    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:

    – A Dress Rehearsal for the Truth by Alan Shapiro

    – By and By by Alan Shapiro

    – Proceed to Check Out by Alan Shapiro

    – An Arrangement by Alan Shapiro

    – The Season of Phantasmal Peace by Derek Walcott

    – Hooks by C. K. Williams

    – Donahue’s Sister by Thom Gunn

    – Ep 169: Thunder & Rain

    – On Convention by Alan Shapiro

    – The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

    – One Today by Richard Blanco

    – Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander

    – Axel’s Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930 by Edmund Wilson

    – Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

    – This Is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams

    – Fountain by Marcel Duchamp

    – Of Heaven Considered as a Tomb by Wallace Stevens

    – Unbound Edition Press

    – Peter Campion

    – Waywiser Press (Soon to become Waywiser Books?)

    – Joseph Harrison

    – Dora Malech

    – Philip Hoy

    – The Gabbro Head Press

    – James Longenbach

    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

  • 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:

    – Even My Sex Is Dust (Review of The Penguin Anthology of Spiritual Verse, ed. Kaveh Akbar) by Zara Raab

    – Ep 177: Alice & Elijah vs. the Abyss, ft. Versecraft Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

    – Churchgoing by Marilyn Nelson

    – Church Going by Philip Larkin

    – Were You There (traditional)

    – Address to the Atheist by Phyllis Wheatley

    – On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phyllis Wheatley

    – Accepting the Disaster by Joshua Mehigan (poem)

    – The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden

    – Aubade by Philip Larkin 

    – Why I am now a Christian by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

    – Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell

    – Ross Douthat

    – Jonathan Rauch

    – Ep 64: The Rabbit Hole, Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

    – Luxury beliefs are the latest status symbol for rich Americans by Rob Henderson

    – The Daily’s interview with Curtis Yarvin

    – Poetry Says Ep 186. Sensitive New Right Guy

    – Poetry Says Ep 294. The American Ecstatic

    – Tar River Poetry

    – What is art? by Leo Tolstoy

    – The Dark Mountain Manifesto

    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

  • NB: Brian informs me that Yarvin’s interviewer was actually David Marchese, not Michael Barbaro, which might explain why I found him so much less insufferable than usual! Also, male mainstream liberal podcasters sure do all have the same voice, don’t they?

    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 Daily’s interview with Curtis Yarvin

    – Yarvin’s embarrassing thoughts on the Passage Prize

    – Yarvin’s less less embarrassing thoughts on a Poetry Daily poem

    – Alice’s two poems in New Verse Review

    – Violent Femmes by Nida Sophasarun

    – My short essay on the 32 Poems website

    – My poem Melancholia in Ploughshares (just ask if you want to read it)

    – Poetry Says Ep 186. Sensitive New Right Guy

    – Poetry Says Ep 294. The American Ecstatic

    – Sex Elegy by Terence Winch

    – Tar River Poetry

    – Nik Prassas’ transcriptions of Geoffrey Hill’s lectures

    – Ep 49: Handsome People Can Be Sad, ft. David Kern

    – What is art? by Leo Tolstoy

    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

  • 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

  • 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