5 THINGS w/ Joee Goheen

Ross Gay came to mind when I thought about listing five things (just five) that have been bringing me happiness—not because Ross Gay makes me happy or because is one of those things in particular (no offense to him), but because of his project on delight and his finding that essentially the more you identify what delights you, the easier it is to find more things. It’s a good exercise, especially now. Gay says “My advice to the person suffering from lack of time and from apathy is this: Seek out each day as many as possible of the small joys,” which I find helpful. Not only as a human being, but as writer, I sometimes struggle with justifying that what I want to say is worthy enough to actually be written down—it’s silly, but it also translates in the day-to-day mundane stuff which is easy to write off as unimportant or not to be considered as a real or steady source of delight. I’m glad for my new washer and dryer, the cats—always, and for Trader Joe’s stuffed grape leaves packaged in aluminum cans—and that’s cool. If it wasn’t, life would be pretty tragic.

So, here are just five things that have brought me happiness recently:

1) Revisiting Zadie Smith’s collection of short fiction, Grand Union (2019).

Sometimes I just need to be dazzled by Zadie Smith. I also need a reprieve from academic reading with something short and non-committal I can just pick up and put back down, which is the beauty of short stories. Grand Union packages all the clever, creative, and nuanced writing of Zadie Smith in short form. She’s always a joy, and I’m pretty sure she could write anything and make it the most interesting and relevant thing I’d ever read. The collection itself is an assemblage of the current zeitgeist and modern, urban life in all its oddities and troubling realities, as well as some of the good bits. Often, New York City serves as the setting for these tiny stories and snippets of life to play out. In particular, the stories “Words and Music,” “Lazy River,” and “Escape from New York” are the three I find most delightful. “Words and Music” is this intimate sketch of different New Yorkers—an old spinster who’d rather seem crazy than lonely; an Abraham Lincoln impersonator who loses his identity in the winter when forced to wear a beanie; various others and their relationship to music or sound in some way—but also our relationship to one another through sound. “Lazy River” is ultimately this gorgeous, extended metaphor about being constantly “submerged” in media and in our collective, but quiet, despair. It’s also a testament to how well Smith can riff like no other. “Escape from New York” is this hilarious, imaginative take on the urban legend of Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando leaving New York together after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It’s ridiculous, but also written in a way that’s sincere and manages not be gimmicky. Also, I love anything about Marlon Brando, real or fictional.

2) Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw (2021)

I’m not even third of the way through this novel yet, but I’m already obsessed. It’s one of the books we’ve been assigned to read for a Fiction: Craft and Theory class I’m taking, and it’s honestly been eclipsing all my other reading and responsibilities—it’s just excellent. I’m not a huge fan of horror or gore, but I might be after this. There is a lot to appreciate about Stephen Graham Jones’ meticulous prose and the unique rendering of the novel’s main character, Jade Daniels, who materializes off the page. The storytelling is impeccable. I never thought horror could make me giddy (much in same way it does the protagonist), but here I am—and here it is on list.

3) This Blenko Glass cicada window hanger I received when I was home in WV last.

It emits a warm, orange glow even when it’s overcast and dreary. The cicada reminds me of summers at home and the giant oak in my grandparent’s front yard which harbors an army of them, screaming in harmony until sundown. My grandfather recently fell ill and has been bed-ridden for the past two and half months, so I gave him a red bee hanger and put it in his window.

4) Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s World of Wonders (2020)

As one of my favorite poets, I have to read anything Aimee Nezhukumatathil writes and have recently been reading this book published by Milkweed Editions last year. It’s organized as an encyclopedia of the natural world and its flora and fauna which create a road map of sorts to the personal. The book is organized in little blurbs on whatever plant or animal serve as a reminder of Nezhukumatathil’s many homes or have some personal significance—the corpse flower; dragon fruit; ribbon eel; axolotl; vampire squid. The illustrations by Fumi Mini Nakamura are amazing and make me so, so happy. I want them all as framed prints in my apartment.

“Axolotl” from World of Wonders — “Axolotl” from *World of Wonders*

“Narwhal” from World of Wonders — “Narwhal” from *World of Wonders*

5) Heinrich Heine’s Songs of Love and Grief (translated by Walter W. Arndt)

I got this collection last Christmas from a friend who knows I love Heine, and it’s one I keep by my bedside to read a poem or two before falling asleep.

I read these two the other night:

From Lyrical Interlude (1822-23)