The Book of Ten

Notes

 notes the epigraph is from the Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski, first quoted in Kieslowski on Kieslowski, edited by danusia Stok (faber and faber, ). the “Decalogue” poems had their genesis in Kieslowski’s Dekalog, ten short films originally made for Polish television in .the films are, in one sense, Kieslowski ’s meditation on the ten Commandments, though they do not follow a strict order, nor is any one film necessarily limited to reflecting only one Commandment . as Kieslowski noted, his films are as much concerned with sins against oneself as they are sins against whatever we mean when we say “god.” the speaker of these poems uses the films to address her own struggles to understand the nature of god, sin, and death. “i got a Mind to ramble” is for Julia Markus. alberta hunter, the american blues singer and songwriter, born in , achieved fame in the s and s and was best known for the songs “downhearted blues” and “My Man is Such a handy Man.” in  hunter retired from show business, spending more than twenty years as a nurse in new york City, and her remarkable singing was largely forgotten. in  bernard Josephson persuaded her to sing at his greenwich village nightclub, the Cookery, where she immediately became a media sensation , was signed by Columbia records, and continued to appear at the Cookery until just before her death in october . “the Strange Case of the virgin Lidwina”: the title is from a fifteenth-century document describing the illness of St. Lidwina, which is believed to be the earliest known recorded case of the illness we now call multiple sclerosis. this poem is for Marsha recknagel. “horoscope” is for barbara hamby and david Kirby. “gratification” is for orly. ...