St. Antony's Church, NM


St. Anthony's Church

in Questa, New Mexico,
erected a plaque
on a pedestal
outside its doors
to honor all the dead
"unborn children"
of the world.

I looked in vain
for a corresponding plaque
to honor the bone-thin
babies starving or dying from HIV
in South Central, L.A.,
in Albuquerque or Santa Fe,
in barrios below the border,
the Sudan, the streets of
Calcutta or North Korea,
the armless children
in Iraq, the legless soldiers of
all countries, the untold numbers
of grieving parents, brothers, sisters,
& lovers.
                I looked & found
lovely yellow & orange wild flowers
growing in a white planter shaped
like a cross.
                      --Clifton Snider

--Copyright © by Clifton Snider, 2012.
         

newmexico.wildflowers

I wrote this poem on a residence fellowship at The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Taos, in the summer of 2004.  It was published in Chiron Review, #81, winter 2005, in its GLBT issue

Chiron Review Press published my books, The Alchemy of Opposites and Aspens in the Wind, and I am pleased to have been published in its pages since its beginnings as the Kindred Spirit in 1982.  Needless to say, I recommend this issue highly.

"St. Anthony's Church" has also been published in the anthology, Poetic Voices Without Borders, ed. Robert L. Giron (Arlington, VA: Gival Press, 2009), and it is in my new book of poems, Aspens in the WindI am pleased to note that the anthology in which "St. Anthony's Church" appears won the 2009 National Best Book Award for Fiction & Literature: Anthologies, sponsored by USA Book News.

"St. Anthony's Church" is also in my retrospective collection, Moonman: New and Selected Poems.

I am pleased to post the poem as translated by Melvin Rosales into Spanish.

Iglesia de San Antonio

en Questa, Nuevo México,
erigió una placa
en un pedestal
fuera de sus puertas
para honrar a todos los muertos
"los niños no nacidos"
del mundo.
 
Busqué en vano
para una placa correspondiente
en honor a la esquelética
bebés mueren de hambre o morir de VIH
en South Central, L.A.
en Albuquerque o Santa Fe,
en los barrios por debajo de la frontera,
el Sudán, las calles de
Calcuta o Corea del Norte,
los niños sin brazos
en Irak, los soldados sin patas de
todos los países, los números incalculables
de afligidos padres, hermanos, hermanas,
y los amantes.
                        Miré y encontrados
hermosas flores silvestres amarillas y naranja
creciendo en una maceta en forma de blanco
como una cruz.

--Copyright © by Clifton Snider and Melvin Rosales, 2012.

"St. Anthony's Church" has also been translated into Arabic by the Moroccan poet and translator, El Habib Louai.  I am pleased to present it here.  Read more about El Habib Louai on this site: http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/people/profile.asp?ItemID=586

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         كـنـيـسـة سـانـــت انـتــونـــي

قصيدة كليفتون سنايدر
ترجمة الحبيب الواعي

في كويستا بنيو مكسيكو،
نصبت لافتة
على قاعدة تمثال
خارج أبواب الكنيسة
لتكرم كل قتلى
أطفال العالم
 "الذين لم يولدوا بعد "

بحثت بلا جدوى
عن لافتة مشابهة
لأكرم العظام الرقيقة
لأطفال يتضورون جوعا
أو يموتون بسبب الايدز
في جنوب وسط لوس انجليس،
في ألبوكرك أو سانتا في،
في أحياء أسفل الحدود،
في السودان وشوارع
كالكوتا أو كوريا الشمالية،
لأكرم أطفالا بدون سواعد
في العراق وجنودا بلا أرجل
في جميع بلدان العالم،
وأعدادا لا تحصى
من آباء  وإخوة وأخوات،
.وعشاق مكروبين
 نظرت حولي و وجدت
زهورا برية جميلة, صفراء وبرتقالية
تنمو في مبذرة بيضاء صيغت
.على شكل صليب
. حقوق الطبع والنشر © كليفتون سنايدر
، 2012
 (© El Habib Louai and Clifton Snider)



El Habib Louai's translation of "St. Anthony's Church," as well as his translation into Arabic of my poem, "Before I Go," have been published in the Moroccan daily newspaper, Rissalat al-Ouma (The Message of the Nation), 25 October 2013.

Click here for a video of my reading "St. Anthony's Church" in the original English with El Habib Louai reading his translation into Arabic in Tamri, Morocco, 20 October 2018.

Page copyright © by Clifton Snider, 2019.  All rights reserved.

Home.
Top.
A Poet Against the War.
Art and Poetry, with translations of my poem, "Aspen in the Wind," in French and in Spanish.
Before I Go, with translations into Arabic and Spanish.
My Selena, with translations into Spanish.


Page last revised 14 January 2019