'Poetry is not a Chapel of Peace

Poetry is a guerrilla war'

 

Both descriptive words in the second line have metallic roots :
война can mean war, arms or sword,
and ЖЕСТОКИЙ, with a whole list of dire meanings, comes from ЖЕСТЬ : tin...
My use of 'guerrilla' might be controversial - but it is a more appropriate word
than my original choice: 'unrelenting'.

The line could even be translated (with a nod to The Battle Hymn of the Republic) as

'Poetry is a terrible [slow!] sword'

 

(Oh! the travail of translating verse...)