‘I Explain a Few Things’ by Chilean poet and writer Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is a poem that delves into the Spanish Civil War of the mid-1930s and the devastation that the fascist bombing of Guernica wrought. The poem resonates with the feeling of desolation, shot through (pardon the pun) with gruesome imagery:

 My house was called
“The house with the flowers” because around it
Geraniums exploded. It was
A beautiful house
With dogs and kids …

Then one morning flames
Came out of the ground
Devouring human beings.
From then on fire,
Gunpowder from then on,
From then on blood …
Bandits with black monks giving their blessing
Came across the sky to kill children
And through the streets, the blood of children
Ran simply, like children’s blood does.

I have seen the blood
Of Spain rise up against you
To drown you in a single wave
Of pride and knives!

Generals
Traitors
Look at my dead home
Look at broken Spain –
But from each dead house
Burning metal shoots out
Instead of flowers.
From every shell-hole in Spain
Spain will rise.
From every dead child a rifle with
Eyes will rise.
From every crime bullets will be born
Which will one day find a place
In your hearts.

You ask “Why doesn’t your poetry
Speak to us of dreams and leaves
Of the great volcanoes of your native land?”

Come
See the blood along the streets
Come see
The blood along the streets
Come see the blood
Along the Streets!

Nazi Germany supported the uprising and tried out its new air force in bombing raids against those regions of Spain still controlled by the Popular Front. ‘IT’S NEW’ … ring any bells, as in Gaza vis a vis the Israeli Occupation Forces and its modern technology!

The fascist uprising succeeded and General Francisco Franco became dictator of Spain until his death in 1976. Yes, the mid seventies!

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland supports its ‘strategic partner’, Israel, in its war on the military occupied land of Palestine in Gaza, content in the knowledge that its partner is showing ‘restraint’ in its military actions against defenceless civilians.

To date, as a result of the ‘restraint’ shown by the Israeli Occupation Forces, only a minimum of 34,183 killed, 77,143 wounded and at least 11,000 missing.

Yes, RESTRAINT! Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, First Ministers, Members of Parliament, Lords and Ladies, Bishops and Pastors, Preachers and Biblical scholars, along with …

Generals
Traitors
Look at my dead home
Look at broken Gaza –
But from each dead house
Burning metal shoots out
Instead of flowers.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Guernica 1937

(Both called Pablo, both died in 1973)