Storm Damage
Submitted by Janine on
Your train is delayed
Because of leaves on the line
With trees still attached
My Poems
Having written and performed as The Big J in the 1980s, Janine started again in 2014, after a brief interlude of around a quarter of a century.
Froms sonnets to villanelles, limericks to ballads, the occasional rap and plenty of straightforward rants, serious and humorous and sometimes both, here is Janine's verse.
Janine's poems have been published in numerous poetry and other journals and websites, including Algebra of Owls, South Bank Poetry, the Daily Mirror, PUSH, Hour of Writes, Proletarian Poetry, Confluence Medway, Screaming Violets, Poetry24, Solidarity, Stand Up and Spit, Hastings Independent, Freedom, Women’s Fightback, the Morning Star, Rising and TenFootCity; and in anthologies Spies4Life, Poems for Jeremy Corbyn, Justice: Poems for Grenfell Tower.and Ashes to Activists
The End of the End of Austerity
Submitted by Janine on
It's the end of the end of austerity
Can you believe the temerity?
Sajid has said
That his promise is dead
But the few will retain their prosperity
"Austerity no more" is no more
The previous promise ignored
The election is done
And the Tories have won
And the rule of the market is law
Concurrence
Submitted by Janine on
I commented on
the common use
of vision as a metaphor
for understanding
"Yes", you replied
"I see what you mean"
Nadia Whittome MP's Maiden Speech
Submitted by Janine on
I made Nadia Whittome's maiden Commons speech into a poem. Here it is:
"I'm here through solidarity
and hard work in my town
I want to say to Nottingham:
'I will not let you down'
I'll represent this burning earth
- a planet we must save
To speak up for a generation
outward-faced and brave
Asymmetrical Me
Submitted by Janine on
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Video: Raging
Submitted by Janine on
'ScoMo Must Go!' chants demand the end of Scott Morrison's tenure as Australian Prime Minister. But Janine's poem argues that it is not just ScoMo who must go, but "Every climate change denier, Neoliberal vote for hire ...".
Raging
Submitted by Janine on
"I believe in a fair go
for those who have a go ...
If you're having a go
you'll get a go."
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, 2019
Everyone must surely know
That Sco- Mo- must- go!
Liberals reap what Liberals sow
Sco- Mo- must- go!
The winds of change will surely blow
Sco- Mo- must- go!
But so must ...
Labour Heartlands
Submitted by Janine on
Isn't this a heartland too?
We have poundshops, pawnshops, boarded-up shops
and industries replaced by social services
We too have schools with leaking roofs
and youth in gigs and gangs and anguish
Isn't this a heartland too?
We have hearts and we have lands
Hearts that beat on rundown streets
and lands blemished with landfill
and corporate-municipal scandal
Nowhere to Hide
Submitted by Janine on
I contemplated emigrating
or moving out of town
I'd spend my weekends walking dogs
my weekdays knuckling down
My grandmother was Scottish and
my great-grandma a Jew
And while some borders still stay down
perhaps they'll let me through
Or I could hump my tucker bag
and pitch up in Australia
(Though on that points-based entry test
I'd probably score a failure)
Gloating Voter
Submitted by Janine on
I’m stockpiling for harder times
I'm panicking and hoarding
But I won’t vote for Labour 'cos
I don’t like Jeremy Corbyn
Of course I’d like to see more help
for those who face adversity
Of course folk shouldn’t have to pay
to go to university
And rent controls would be so good -
the costs that they’re absorbing
But I’ll not vote for Labour 'cos
I don’t like Jeremy Corbyn
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