Sweetman Podcast

Welcome to episode three of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS. This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, an...

Welcome to episode two of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS. This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, and...

Each month I host an open mic called ‘Say The Thing’. Poems, stories, anything people want to read or speak, provided the wrote it. I usually read a poem or two, or some short prose to kick off, so that no one else feels they have to be the ‘first reader’. This month I read two new/ish Harry Nilsson poems, since that’s my current writing obsession. I read two that I’d only just written and shared,...

Welcome to episode one of my new podcast series — Object/ive Permanence — where in one take, no edits, I chat with someone, the conversation is captured, and you can watch and/or listen to it. The podcast is here on Substack but will go out on all the other usual Podcast channels as past of the “Sweetman Podcast” RSS. This is a new experiment. I’m talking to people about an object they bring, and...

Here’s a reading of a couple of pieces from The Richard Poems , and four new pieces, three of my Harry Nilsson poems, and a poem I wrote just two days before reading. I was the opening for A Party of Poets at The Cabana, in Napier. A terrific event, an incredible lineup to be part of — what I loved was we were all different. The seven poets reading all had different themes, content, and delivery....

You’ll know if you’ve been checking in here in any way that I’m obsessing over Harry Nilsson, in general, and also writing what is becoming a sequence — possibly even a whole book — of “Harry poems”. So I turned up to the Poetry in Motion open mic last night to give a couple of them a run. Not bad. Apart from saying “Harry Wilson” because the light on stage wasn’t great and I’m an idiot! But hey,...

Misery — a gateway for both of us, the film especially. But we’re both fans of the book and the movie. A warning, we botched the sound on this one a bit — so definitely turn it all the way up! The podcast goes out on YouTube first and foremost — so we’d love you to like and subscribe over there . But also adding it here so you can find it on Substack, and your favourite podcast providers like Spot...

I was the guest poet and MC at a recent Wellington On a Plate event up in the Kapiti Coast: It was a ticketed event, and sold out, so I did not record the whole show to share, since that wouldn’t be fair. But I did capture the opening poem, a cover — and thought it might be fun to share it here, as a “cover poem”. I might offer some more up over time. Here’s the full text of it: Style is the answe...

The turntable is my alarm clock, it has this thing where you can program it, but it will only play one side of course, and it doesn’t switch off after, so I wake up to a few lines by Tears For Fears, or a guitar solo by Lindsey Buckingham, but then I doze again and wake up to the train-rhythm of the needle just butting against the end groove and locked in a loop. I’ve named the rat Ben. After the...

The regular Say The Thing open mic that I started just over a year ago features an opportunity for reading of all kinds - not just poetry. Though I’m often first up with a quick poem to get things going. I don’t consider myself a reader there, just the MC. And I read something short to start the night so that the ice is broken; it means no one has to go first — first has just happened. And the fir...

Last night, Monday, June 22, I was invited out to be a guest reader at the celebration of Flash Fiction Day . There’s a competition and short-listed entrants (and some long-listed one) read their entries. There’s also some guests reading from their own published work — even if they weren’t part of the competition. I debuted a brand new piece that I wrote specifically for this reading. It’s called...

Something I’ve been mulling for a wee while…how to do my old podcast again, but make it (kinda) new. And I think I’ve landed on it. And I’m going to start recording and sharing new episodes — here first and with/as video. (There’ll be the option to just listen to it as an audio clip if that’s how you prefer your pods). It will still go out under the Sweetman Podcast label — and be tied to the RSS...

I’m always in motion, but I’m not going anywhere. I’m still the opposite of Ben when I think about it. He’s everywhere and all at once, and so busy, and the scurrying barely stops. I mean, I almost wonder if Ben is real when I stop to think about it. I never see him. I feel like I imagine I hear him as much as actually hearing him, but yeah, the proof of him was definitely on display for a time. A...

Here we are with our first-recorded podcast of 2026, and our second episode shared for the year. It’s time we got a move on, but thanks for sticking with us. We had a big one here! IT — very much the most popular and influential of King’s books, thanks especially to the recent movies and their dominance and popularity. So we explore the book, the films, the music for those films, and the influence...

Well, it was time to host the second “Say The Thing” of 2026. We had a strong card of about 20 readers of poetry, stories, and essays at MEOW — and as the host and MC I decided to read a couple of new poems as part of my intro to the event — that way no one feels they’re being forced to go first; our ‘first’ real reader of the night can technically say they went second. The ice is broken. That’s t...

I haven’t done a video for a while — so here are six poems from the last year or so, read out by me in a one-take video. I’ll link to the poems as they originally appeared here for those that want to read them instead, or as well… 1. / 2. / 3. / 4. / 5. / 6. / And next Wednesday, April 29, it’s Say The Thing — the monthly open mic. I’ll do a seperate post about it, but save the date, and if you’re...

One Christmas, I got this two-person pup tent. So stoked. We put it up right away, out in the backyard, just a stone’s throw from the house. We had a wee pool and a spa. There was a Ponga fence, and my dad had a black belt in Macramé — so by the pool there was this big, long dangling rope tree-thing, with a glass table-top hanging inside it for drinks and things. When I hear George Benson’s Give M...

My first time back at Poetry in Motion for 2026. I took the opportunity to plug our upcoming “Say The Thing” open mics for this year, at new venue, MEOW. And I read three new poems from, seemingly, a series of bus-stop poems. Poems I’m writing on the bus on the way to work, about experiences and thoughts to do with waiting for the bus, and bus etiquette. You can read along at home: It was fun to b...

We are back with the 13th episode of We All Float Down Here — A Stephen King podcast . Our last of 2025 (on YouTube) and first of 2026 (here on other podcast services and Substack) is our second “Richard Bachman” episode. King famously wrote a bunch of books as Richard Bachman, later publishing them under his own name as “The Bachman Books”. This set of four novels includes the now banned and out...

Here is a recording of my portion of a very cool literary event in Havelock North. The Cuba Press drove into town on the big orange metaphorical bus and we had readings, and a chat about our books in front of a wonderful and engaged audience. They stayed! They bought our books. They had great questions for us and comments afterwords. Thanks so much to the brilliant Wardini Books and Mary and Cuba...

Snag is a nasty wee story that includes violence and discussion of sexual assault. It’s flippant, provocative, and probably downright brutal. But that’s up to each individual to decide. So if you think you’re better off skipping this story — then you should. I’ve supplied a text for it below, and the audio recording is up above. You can read it, or read along with the the recording, or just listen...

This time last year we launched my second book of poetry, The Richard Poems . The launch was at the clothing and barber store, That Was Then This Is Now , not only a magical place to get a great haircut or some snazzy threads, but also to launch a book: Emily Writes delivered an amazing speech: And I had a ramble too of course: There’s even a playlist attached to the book — scan the QR code on the...

Sounds Good! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Most people think the “Mary, Mary, quite contrary” thing is just a rhyme — a cute little bounce off the name. And maybe there’s that thing in there too where it’s giving a quick character assessment of the child, the idea that the wee girl making a tiny, temporary...

It’s been five years since we launched my first book of poetry, The Death of Music Journalism . I did a little audio podcast at the time sharing some of the story behind the writing of the poems, the making of the book, and reading some of the work. I thought for its fifth birthday, I’d share a reading of five poems that I don’t think I’ve ever read out from the book before. A range of the content...

Here’s a reading of a short story (which might also be a poem, depending on how you hear it) called Bumper Boats. You can read below an earlier version of this — there are some slight changes in the reading vs. this text version linked here: Anyway, I’m enjoying exploring this — it’s meant to be a single sentence, which obviously presents challenging when reading, so here’s an earnest first attemp...