Samantha Zighelboim says, “Why don’t you write about things that make you happy?” (Ray DeJesús)

During a conversation with Samantha the other day, it was suggested that my next post simply be about things that make me happy. Below, you will a find a harum-scarum list of some of the things that happen to make this crazy cat smile. This one is for you, Sam.

  1. Books by Rod Smith: Deed, Protective Immediacy, Music or Honesty, In Memory of My Theories, et al
  2. Reruns of Three's Company
  3. Jim Jarmusch
  4. Books by Rachel Zolf: Human Resources, Masque, Neighbour Procedure, et al
  5. Claire Donato's chapbook and website: Someone Else's Body and somanytumbleweeds, respectively
  6. Supermachine Magazine          
  7. Books of Ben Mirov: Ghost Machine, I is Vorticism, Vortexts, et al
  8. Maggy Poetry Magazine
  9. 1913: a Journal of Forms
  10. The work of Mark Bibbins: Sky Lounge, The Dance of No Hard Feelings, his work at The Awl, his apartment
  11. Elaine Equi's whimsy and brilliance
  12. The Melvins
  13. The Ramones
  14. The Smiths
  15. George MacLarty
  16. Vanessa Place
  17. St. Mark's Bookshop
  18. Telephone (eited by Sharmila Cohen and Paul Legault
  19. My dog, Zoe
  20. My cat, Mischa
  21. Street punk, crust punk, pop punk, chaos punk, anarcho-punk
  22. Maximum Rocknroll magazine
  23. Victor Hernández Cruz's Maraca (Coffee House Press, 2001)
  24. Robert Fernandez's We are Pharaoh (Canarium Press)
  25. Laura Minor's music, poetry
  26. The Song Cave (Edited by Ben Estes and Alan Felsenthal)
  27. Flying Object, Hadley, Mass-Dynamite people
  28. LL Cool J
  29. Christine Kanowink's red hair
  30. Augury Books (Edited by Christine Kanowink and Kate Angus)
  31. Roger Federer
  32. Leah Iannone's New Jersey
  33. Chesterfield cigarettes
  34. Pall Mall cigarettes
  35. Gin
  36. Women (Is this a bad thing?)
  37. Jaime DeJesus' letter To Ken Davidoff, of NY Newsday fame, regarding newspaper versus magazine in sports.
  38. Angry Samoans
  39. Cafe Danton-Paris, France
  40. The work of Paul Legault: The Madeline Poems, The Other Poems (got a sneek peek)
  41. Ted Berrigan
  42. Buster Keaton
  43. Laurel and Hardy
  44. Al Pacino
  45. Jeff Bridges
  46. Chocolate egg creams
  47. The Queers
  48. The Krays
  49. Packages
  50. Marianna's laugh
  51. Panick Attack!: Art in the Punk Years (Merrell Publishers, 2007)
  52. Howie Pyro's Intoxica Radio
  53. Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punk on Film (Fantagraphics Books, 2010)
  54. Jeff Johnson's manuscript: Filmography
  55. Pornography (Video tape, dvd, internet, any will do)
  56. K. Silem Mohammad's Sonnagrams
  57. Airplanes
  58. Notebooks
  59. Martin Beeler's poetry
  60. Michel Gizzi (RIP)
  61. Peter Gizzi
  62. Semi-colons
  63. Klonopin
  64. Ampersands
  65. The Verrazano Bridge
  66. Tony Manero's hair
  67. Any mention of the television show Small Wonder
  68. Winnie Cooper
  69. My mother's latina/Brooklyn accent
  70. Georgina's whispers
  71. Long autumn rides with Karen Cervasio Kolyer
  72. Hüsker Dü
  73. The photos of Dash Snow
  74. Hans Peter-Feldman
  75. The idea of Los Angeles
  76. Jessica Madison's smile
  77. Ariel Kates-Harris' "Rad!"
  78. Ashleigh Allen's booming laugh
  79. Dean, of Cafe Loup fame
  80. Natalie Portman
  81. Maggie Q
  82. Disliking Madonna
  83. My suspicion of folks who hate television, but watch Hulu all day (Thanks, Christine)
  84. Dad
  85. Bensonhurst, circa 1990 and earlier
  86. Coney Island High (No longer)
  87. CBGB's (No longer)
  88. The Truents (NYC punk)
  89. Popcorn
  90. My adopted niece, Elizabeth Collins
  91. Cursing in English
  92. Cursing in Spanish
  93. Meliza's "Cawfee"
  94. Rachel's Penelope Cruz and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
  95. Allison Power's hair
  96. Allison Tray and Maria
  97. Little House on the Prairie (TV show)
  98. Root beer
  99. Poems
  100. Ernest Borgnine
  101. Popeye
  102. Illiana and Amanda
  103. Smeltz
  104. Joe Weil's mind
  105. Ron Silliman
  106. Charles Bernstein
  107. PennSound
  108. EPC (Electronic Poetry Center)
  109. Modigliani
  110. Susan Bee
  111. Grollier Poetry Book Shop
  112. The old Bowery
  113. Bernadate Mayer 
  114. Aram Sarayon's Minimal Poems (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Samantha Zighelboim holds an MFA from Columbia University. Her poems, translations, and book reviews have appeared in Maggy, Thumbnail, TheThe Poetry Blog  BOMB, Rattapallax, and The People’s Poetry Project.  Recently, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize on behalf of Thumbnail. She received an honorable mention for the 2010 Bennett Poetry Prize at Columbia University, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.  Currently she’s working on her first collection of poems, and lives in New York City with her cat, Buddha.

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