Spies4Life

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Poet Jason Pilley put together an anthology of poetry, printed 300 copies, and he and others gave them away on London’s South Bank on a June Saturday while performing poetry. Splendid. Janine’s poem, ‘Turn Up The Heating’ was included. Although … Read more

War Poetry: Challenging the Nationalist Narrative

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From its declaration of war in 1914, Britain’s ruling class appealed to patriotism to boost its support and its military recruitment. By 1916 both were flagging. On the pages of socialist newspaper The Herald, poets used verse to question both … Read more

Verses From The First World War: Conscription

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Published in Solidarity 396, 2 March 2016. One hundred years ago this week, conscription came into force in Britain. The Military Service Act placed men between 18 and 41 years of age into the army reserve unless they were married … Read more

Christmas Eve (1915)

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A century ago, with Britain at war, the Woman’s Dreadnought published this poem: CHRISTMAS EVE – to man the comfortable Hark, O, Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born heavenly King! Come near the fire and closer draw the … Read more

The Poetry League Table

1 This line is the champion 2 This line’s the runner-up 3 This one and the next one made 4 The poetry champions’ cup 5 The fifth line’s rhymes have fallen short 6 The sixth line too missed out 7 … Read more

Tim Wells on Ranting Poetry

Interesting radio interview with Tim Wells about ranting poetry, from about 18:30, including a mention of Janine! Tongue Fu Presents:The Dojo by Soho Radio on Mixcloud

This Be The Controverse

A rewrite of Philip Larkin’s ‘This Be The Verse‘: They fuck you up, Conservatives They mean to, and they really do They take away what progress gives And add some extra spite for you But they were fucked up in their … Read more

War Poetry: Song of the Mothers

Publikshed in Soildarity 350, 21 January 2015: During the 1914-18 war, well over 2,000 people wrote published poetry in the UK. Most of them were not soldiers writing from the trenches. The “soldier poets” such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried … Read more

War Poetry: From The Youth Of All Nations

Published in Solidarity 345: ‘From the Youth of All Nations’ reads to me as a bitter complaint against the ruling classes on all sides of the First World War playing out their arguments with the sufferings and lives of soldiers. … Read more

A German soldier’s peace poem

Published in Solidarity 335, 10 September 2014 From The Workers’ Dreadnought, 29 June 1918 A poem was found on the dead body of a German soldier. The British authorities reproduced it in facsimile and threw it from aeroplanes into the German … Read more

War, Hell and Hope

Published in Solidarity 337, 24 September 2014 The Workers’ Dreadnought published this poem on its front page, heading an article entitled “Soldiers ask what they are fighting for” on 20 October 1917. Britain was over three years into a war which … Read more

No Rhyme, No Crime

Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme It can be blank verse from time to time Oops, a self-defeating pair Of lines – oh fuck it, I don’t care.

‘Government’

by Janine Booth (intro) / Eva Gore-Booth (poem) – published in Solidarity 334 Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1926) was an Irish poet and dramatist, and a suffragist and labour movement activist. She was the younger sister of Constance Markiewicz, the nationalist, socialist and feminist … Read more