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  • About poetry
  • Articles about poetry and favourite poems by others
  • My Poems
  • From 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.
  • 1980s Ranting Poetry: The Big J
  • Janine performed poetry in the 1980s as The Big J. This section contains poems, articles and other bits n bobs from this historic era.
  • Acrostics
  • An acrostic is a poem in which the first (or sometimes, the last) letter of each line spells out a word or phrase.
  • Ballads
  • Each stanza has four iambic lines, of four, three, four and three beats. The four lines rhyme abcb, and balladeers may use an internal rhyme in the first and third lines.
  • Festive Funnies
  • Some daftly-rewritten Christmas odes
  • Formal poetry
  • Villanelles, sonnets, haiku, limericks and more ... Not all Janine's poems follow strict forms, but these ones do ...
  • Clerihew

    Four lines, two rhyming couplets. The first line is the name of a person. The rhymes and the line lengths are allowed to be - supposed to be, even - a bit rubbish.

  • Golden shovels

    A golden shovel takes another poet's poem (or extract) and uses its words as the end words of the lines of a new poem. So if you read down the right-hand side, just the last word of each line, of the golden shovel, you will be reading the poem that inspired it. The golden shovel expands, develops or even changes the meaning of the original.

  • Haiku

    First: five syllables Next line: seven syllables Last: five syllables There are some other rules too, but I'm ignoring them.

  • Limericks

    Five-line poems, usually funny or light-hearted; the first, second and fifth lines rhyme with each other; the third and fourth lines also rhyme with each other, and are shorter.

  • Pantoums

    A form of poetry comprised of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza being repeated as the first and third of the next, until the last stanza, where the second and fourth lines are the third and first lines of the first stanza. Got that? Good.

  • Sonnets

    Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. The two most usual rhyme schemes are ababcdcd-efefgg (English/Shakespearean) and abbaabba-cdecde or abbaabba-cdcdcd (Italian/Petrarchan). The move from the first eight lines (the octave) to the remaining six lines (the sestet) often sees a turn in the poem's theme or 'argument'. Plus some fourteen-liners that are not strictly sonnets.

  • Triolet

    Eight lines. The first and second lines repeat as the seventh and last lines, and the first line also repeats as the fourth line. The rhyme scheme is  ABaAabAB, capital letters representing the repeated lines.

  • Four Lines That Rhyme
  • Quick quatrains with a rhyme scheme.
  • Villanelles
  • A nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five three-line stanzas (tercets) followed by a final, four-line stanza (quatrain).
  • Poetry Performances
  • In this section, you will find information about gigs past and future, plus a few videos of Janine performing,
  • SpOAKen Word Lewes
  • Janine ran Spoaken Word Lewes for two years, from September 2021 - spelt that way because it took place at the Royal Oak, 3 Station Street, Lewes, East Sussex.
  • Stealth Aspies
  • Janine performed as part of the Stealth Aspies theatre company, a group of autistic adults telling autistic life stories on stage.

Poeting and MCing at Bearded Theory

Bearded Theory Something Else Tea Tent 2026

Janine will be MCing the Something Else Tea Tent on the Friday of the Bearded Theory festival – introducing the acts and slotting in some poems. It’ll be great to be back after last year’s fun. Tea Tent performers over … Read More

Riverside Festival, Leicester

Riverside Festival, Leicester

Janine will perform three ten-minute poetry sets on each day of Leicester’s Riverside Festival. The annual Riverside Festival is Leicester’s largest free arts event, featuring music, food and stalls. It takes place in the centre of Leicester.  Venue and accessibility … Read More

Soteria in the Pub

Soteria in the Pub

Four months after her previous appearance, Janine once again puts in a turn for Soteria in the Pub! Spend the afternoon in great company, with entertaining and thought-provoking contributions, and all for the very worthy cause of supporting Soteria London, … Read More

Last Friday, Leicester

Last Friday

Janine Booth and Sammy Nour (Some-Antics) are among the performers at Leicester’s laid-back, fun Friday evening! Buy your ticket here. Last Friday at Leicester’s LCB All ages welcome (under 14s must be accompanied by an adult) Food + Drink available … Read More

Fair Play Cabaret

Fair Play Cabaret

Step into an unforgettable evening at the Fair Play Cabaret, hosted at the workers’ retreat, Quorn Grange Hotel. Fair Play Cabaret Join us for an unforgettable night of live entertainment at the Quorn Grange Hotel, home of the General Federation … Read More

Class Lines and Red Rhymes in Eastbourne

Class Lines and Red Rhymes

Following our recent mini-tour of Sussex, Janine and Attila are back – this time in Eastbourne! You can just turn up on the night, or book a place here for free, with the option of making a donation. An evening of … Read More

Peter Campbell: At the Heart of a Mad Movement

Peter Campbell book

Come to the online launch of At the Heart of a Mad Movement: The Life and Work of Peter Campbell, Psychiatric System Pioneer! Janine will be reading some of Peter Campbell’s poems as part of this launch. Peter Campbell: about … Read More

Soteria in the Pub

Soteria in the Pub

Four months after her previous appearance, Janine once again puts in a turn for Soteria in the Pub! Spend the afternoon in great company, with entertaining and thought-provoking contributions, and all for the very worthy cause of supporting Soteria London, … Read More

Andrew’s arrest: 10 poems

Andrew, back in the day when he was still a prince

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on 18 February 2026 on suspicion of misconduct in public office sent my brain into short-verse-writing mode. Amidst the pleasure of the mighty falling is the anger that he is being questioned not for his … Read More

40 Days of Lent

Lent Ramadan comments

“This is a Christian country”, you saythough less than two per centactually go to church on Sunday –But that’s not what you meant Rather, you object to othersof a different religious bentcelebrating, enjoying themselves,holding an event Instead of loving thy … Read More

Class Lines and Red Rhymes in Ashton-under-Lyne

Station Hotel, Ashton-under-Lyne

Class Lines and Red Rhymes hits the beating heart of the We Shall Overcome movement – The Station Hotel in Ashton-under-Lyne. Janine Booth and Joe Zux will read contributions to our anthology of left-wing poems, plus some stuff of their … Read More

Poeting at the Guild Sessions, Lincoln

Guild Sessions, Lincoln

Janine takes to the stage at the Guild Sessions in Lincoln. The Guild Sessions invites quality local and national folk and world music acts (plus a poet) to Lincoln on the third Monday of each month, wrapped in a beautiful … Read More

Class Lines in Doncaster!

Doncaster Brewery Tap

The Class Lines and Red Rhymes juggernaut arrives in Doncaster, appearing at the regular Well Spoken! event. Anthology editor Janine Booth will be joined by contributor Joe Zux in performing a variety of poems from the book, together with some … Read More

SpeakEasy, Lincoln

SpeakEasy

Janine will be the feature poet at April’s SpeakEasy in Lincoln. SpeakEasy takes place on the second Friday of every month. It features poetry, spoken word, comedy and flash fiction. There will also be an open mic section, with slots … Read More

Be Good

'Be Good' badge produced in solidarity with Renée Nicole Good, murdered by ICE in January 2026

Be Good Be a reader, be a writerBe a gentle justice fighterBe a poet, win a prizeLook around, believe your eyesBe the one who listened and the one who understoodBe Good. Teach your kids equality and be an altruistBe the … Read More

Today’s headlines (12/1/26)

Today's headlines

A villanelle about the two titles that the BBC selected on 12 January to lead its round-up of newspaper headlines Today’s headlines ‘Protester death toll soars’Tehran’s tyrants standing stern‘EU demands “Farage clause”’ Body counters tally scoresBut still the fires of … Read More