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Bad Katyusha Poetry

The U.K. Guardian has published some of the first poetry inspired by the current war between Israel and Hamas. It’s entitled "Katyusha, Katyusha" — after the Hamas rockets being launched at Israel. Here’s an excerpt: Katyusha, Katyusha, / Arrow of fire: / Kingdom Come, is it / Below or above? Choked in a tunnel / […]

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The U.K. Guardian has published some of the first poetry inspired by the current war between Israel and Hamas. It's entitled "Katyusha, Katyusha" -- after the Hamas rockets being launched at Israel.

Here's an excerpt:

Katyusha, Katyusha, / Arrow of fire: / Kingdom Come, is it / Below or above? Choked in a tunnel / With morphine and bread, / Or charred in the wreck / Of an olive grove? / Katyusha, Katyusha, / Spear of desire ...

Etc., etc. These are not the first lines of verse related to the Katyusha rocket, but they are possibly the worst. The Guardian quotes O'Brien, a professor of creative writing at Newcastle University, who describes his poem as "a representation of appalled horror at what's taking place." *[Ironically, Hamas isn't firing off Katyushas, really; instead, the groups is using similar, but distinct Grad rockets -- ed.] *

During the Second World War, the Soviets had a popular song of the same name ("Katyusha" is the diminuitive for the name Yekaterina). Soldiers of the Red Army nicknamed their truck-mounted rocket artillery after the song. The Germans called the Katyusha the less affectionate name for the frightening weapon: Stalinorgel ("Stalin's organs").

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