Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
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
More info about our cricket team here.
We're Lewes Lightning
We're a little bit frightening
We're hitting up a storm
We roar like thunder
Over and under
When we are on form
We're young and older
Fierce and bolder
Than you might have thought us
- a villanelle about this.
Kids needed somewhere safe to swim
so locals raised funds for a pool,
got sponsor forms and filled them in
Again they shook donation tins
to keep aquatics at the school,
to keep the children safe to swim
We only needed a draw.
We didn't even need to score
unless we let one in.
We didn't even need to win,
Just make sure they didn't.
The point the draw would have given
and the two it would take away
from the rivals we happened to be playing that day
would have been enough.
Surely an ask that's not too tough.
Surely a task even we couldn't fluff.
My profit margin's wracked with doubt
My tax demands encumber
I think I know a good way out -
Now, where is Johnson's number?
I manufacture hoovers, mate,
but with a bit of luck
I'm sure I'll make them ventilate
and blow instead of suck
I'll slip the goods through Pirate Bay
and ship them up the Humber
While Customs look the other way -
Now, pass me Johnson's number
If you're locked down with books
and a partner who cooks
better than you
Then you'll probably get through
If you're locked down with a garden
it might not be so hard and
with a nice glass of wine
You'll probably be fine
If you're locked down with games
and people who play them
and plenty of space
You can probably face it
This stinking subway,
piss-soaked flags,
cold stone ground,
discarded fags
is way too good for them.
Install steel spikes,
bayonet their bodies off the floor
and out of doorways,
It's allowed,
or so the law says.
For sure these spears were ordered
from some lordly, comfy quarters
by people with a home to go to
when the deed was done.
Out of sight.
Some people know what it is worth.
Some people can now buy fresh fruit.
Or keep the heating on for another hour.
Some people can get a decent present
for the kiddo's birthday.
Or a coat when winter comes in.
Some people don't always have to make an excuse
when their mate invites them out.
What if I can't stand the train
without the carriage to myself?
What if I can't stretch and strain
to reach up to the luggage shelf?
What if all the outside seats
are taken and the queue's too long?
And I don't recognise the streets
and can't see left or right or wrong?
Frost-polished gardens and cold hands in mittens
Cute, cobbled alleyways, steep, narrow twittens
Playgrounds with climbing frames, ropewalks and swings -
Lewes is full of my favourite things
A walk up the Down to see windmills and horses
Vegan pub lunches with gluten-free sauces
Blue cheese and celery, smoked tofu wings -
Lewes has loads of my favourite things