Mine, and occasionally others'.
Submitted by Janine on
It's the Saturday night when Janine would usually be on stage in the Tolpuddle Unplugged tent at the annual Martyrs' Festival. So, of course, this year she will be appearing in the online version.
Submitted by Janine on
Poetry's Not Fu**ing Boring is back at Bradford Fringe Festival
This year with a livestream featuring a variety of poets including Bradford's very own Nick Toczek as well as Janine Booth, Alex Asher, Keiron Higgins, Bernie the Bolt and a whole lot of others too many to fit in this blurb. We hope to entertain you with rhymes, rants and underground poetry during these strange and rather difficult times.
Submitted by Janine on
Janine Booth performs poetry for the National Education Union's 'Everything is possible - celebrating working women everywhere' online event on 30 May 2020.
Submitted by Janine on
Freeborn John was one
Coronavirus is not:
A great leveller
Submitted by Janine on
Last year, I wrote a poem (a pantoum) called 'This Place' about visiting my son in the adolescent psychiatric unit where he spent four months (read it here).
He now has his own flat, living independently with support. So I decided to write a follow-up poem of the same length in the same style, hoping that this will illustrate the wonderful progression.
Submitted by Janine on
Teenage, British, black, autistic
Prosecuted by the Crown
Against the evidence, convicted
- Free, oh free him: Osime Brown
From care to care, from place to place
Twenty-eight times moved around
Neglected, let down, failed, displaced
- Free, oh free him: Osime Brown
Fearing exile to Jamaica
Left at four, it's unknown ground
Prison cell a spirit breaker
Submitted by Janine on
When my team lost to a goal in the last five minutes of the match from a free kick that should never have been given and got relegated and my face went down with them, you didn't tell me that all football clubs matter.
Submitted by Janine on
Action seen in Bristol
Is truly unforgettable
Poor old Slaver Colston
No longer on his pedestal
Colston was a slaver,
A taker not a giver
Protesters did a favour
Now Colston's in the river
We can't go to the boozer
We can't go to the barber
But we can tear that slaver down
And chuck him in the harbour
Submitted by Janine on
The white
power cap
on the top
of the head
of the cop
with his knee
on the neck
of the man
on the floor
by the pass-
enger door
Who said please
I can't breathe
and who called
for his mum
stopped responding
went numb
but still
bore the knee
and the weight
and the hate
of the cop
who still
wouldn't stop
Submitted by Janine on
They held a peaceful protest
People didn't notice
Nothing changed
Then they rioted and burned
The world watched and learned,
views exchanged
The respectable people said
Their cause is just,
but why must they riot?
Why don't they hold
a peaceful protest?
