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
Submitted by Janine on
Imagine if every time someone died
on an NHS waiting list
A scar appeared on
the skin of a Tory MP
If every time an MP failed to turn up
to an inconveniently-arranged appointment
They were sanctioned
their state handouts stopped
Imagine if every time a person went to a food bank
a Tory MP had to go too
Not for a photo opportunity
but because the cupboard was empty
Submitted by Janine on
Inspired by the story of Sarah Lawton and Gertrude Bigwood
This is the dad
working five months away
from his family, keeping
starvation at bay
This is the mum
taking work when it comes
boiling laundry and toiling
for pitiful sums
Submitted by Janine on
Why do you like that tuneless music?
Wear your hair the way you choose it?
I think you get it it, then you lose it
Why can’t you just be normal?
Can’t you make yourself conform?
Do anything that’s near the norm?
Don’t you know there’s a uniform?
Why can’t you just be normal?
Submitted by Janine on
It's easier to
Weaponise a weapon that's
Already loaded
Submitted by Janine on
When workers leave their homes to graft
by muscle or by brain
The least they need is safety from
the dangers and the strain
So those who wave their loved ones off
can wave them home again
Flowers will lie beside the line
where working people fell
For those who keep our railways safe -
they must be safe as well
Submitted by Janine on
It wasn't the Stonewall focus group
or the Stonewall business case
It wasn't the Stonewall let's-present-
our-most-acceptable-face
Long years of asking nicely had not
got us anywhere
Our rulers did not hear us when
we whispered: it's not fair
So when re-writers try to say
we won by being quiet
Remind them of our history -
that Stonewall was a riot
Submitted by Janine on
I'm declaring World Awareness Awareness Day
on 1 April every year
We need more awareness of our awareness
and of our lack of it.
How many people are even aware
of how aware they are or are not?
Not enough!
This must change!
I ask you all to wear my
Awareness Awarenss Day
badge and/or ribbon
and/or wristband and/or lanyard
Submitted by Janine on
Inside a cell three-walled in fears
kept separated from their peers
A throwback to the Dickens years
the pride and joy of Wackford Squeers
Victorian values raw in tooth
So Tories, damn you - ban the booth!
Submitted by Janine on
Every year we send our tribunes
to knock upon the golden door
and take our just demands there with them -
place our claim, our case for more
The masters let them ask and close
their eyes and sigh that times are tough -
They can't afford to share with those
who made their wealth; there's not enough
Submitted by Janine on
Edward lived in Hoxton
boxed in
Stitching boots
digging roots
Labouring his load
on the neighbouring road
to new arrivals
migrated for survival
from Poland, from Russia
to the holy crush of London
Under the same sky
came together, made ties
meeting in the streets
Tars and bars and beats
tasting gifts and eats
More than metropolitan
