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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