Award-winning British poet Sean O'Brien has written a poem in response to Israel's bombing of Gaza and rocket attacks on southern Israel.

O'Brien wrote Katyusha, Katyusha — named after the Katyusha rockets being launched by Hamas into Israel — after watching events unfold "with growing horror."

'[The poem] is really a representation of appalled horror at what's taking place.'—Sean O'Brien

Hamas rockets have killed four Israelis since the conflict began on Dec. 27 as Israel retaliated against long-term rocket attacks with air strikes in Gaza, killing more than 400 and injuring up to 2,000.

"It just seems there is an insoluble contradiction between the possibilities of this time of year and what's actually taking place," O'Brien told the Guardian newspaper.

"Poetry lives in the world like everything else and tries to make sense of events, including conflict. [This poem] isn't a message, it is really a representation of appalled horror at what's taking place."

O'Brien, who lives in northeast England where he is professor of creative writing at Newcastle University, is the only poet to win Britain's two top poetry prizes, the Forward and T.S. Eliot prizes, in one year (2007).

Compelled to create

He says he doesn't think international influence can change a conflict that is sparked by arrogance and rage but he felt compelled to create the poem.

"The sense of waste is being re-emphasized yet again — the futility of this and the unimaginable horror," said O'Brien.

On Saturday, an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip killed a senior commander of Hamas as international pressure mounts for both sides to stop the carnage.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and several Arab foreign ministers are flying to New York over the weekend to appeal to the UN Security Council to adopt an Arab draft resolution that would condemn Israel and demand a halt to its bombing campaign in Gaza.

O'Brien — who has 13 published works of poetry as well as five short-story collections — is co-founder of the literary magazine the Printer's Devil and contributes reviews to newspapers and magazines including The Times Literary Supplement.

This is his poem:

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,/ Are there green pastures,/ A brave desert rose,/ Or must it be prison/ With pillars of flame?/ Katyusha, Katyusha,/ A grave, or a rose?/ Katyusha, Katyusha,/ God only knows.