Congratulation Cy Street And Dublin Steve - Top Poems For Tribute To Women

A gala poetry event at the Red Brick Bistro last night, Saturday August 26, 2006, Judge Mickey Cesar announced the winners of CafeRg's Splash Poetry Picture Competition. Top Honors went to Cy Street (First Place) for his poem "I Like The One Without The Dress" and DublinSteve (Honorable Mention) for his poem "The Art Of Women". Their winning poems can be read at SplashHall Poetry Forums



Cy will receive a beautiful bouquet of roses to give to his lovely wife (woman) from Allen, CEO of Kingsgate Diamonds and all top 4 poets will receive a CD collections of spoken word and music from Dave at Artvilla.

CafeRg's Splash Poetry Picture Competition is a free, open to all poets on the internet poetry contest. Judges for the "Tribute To Women" competition are Witt Wittmann, editor for D-N Publishing and is Poetry Director for SplashHall Poetry Forums. Debbie "Lady SunShine" Porter, SplashHall Hostess. Belinda Subraman, publisher of Gypsy Art Mag and host of the Gypsy Art Show heard the BZoO HomeGrown Radio. Mickey Cesar, an accomplished and published poet.

Poet Judge Mickey Cesar adds, "I'd like to thank all the SplashHall contributors for their fine work in the “Tribute to Women” poetry contest, and Rg for giving me the opportunity to contribute as a judge. I was glad to see such a wide variety of approaches to the subject, which made the experience of judging a delight: there were full narratives, where poets took their impressions of the woman in the photo and ran with it; poems celebrating the qualities of all women, poems projecting into the woman herself, and poems critiquing female representation in two- dimensional terms. I believe the final four choices presented to members represented these varied approaches well.

“The Art of Women” by dublinsteve struck me for its tender, yet impersonal treatment of the subject, and its brilliant combination of the medium – a digital photo of an attractive woman, with all its attendant associations in contemporary culture – with a real woman, imaginary or not. The poem allows its readers a lot of latitude in interpretation in reaching conclusions about the subject and the poetic voice, and is a wonderful read.

The untitled poem by Chelsea is remarkable for how immediately it engages the reader. The voice is natural, sadly conversational and intimate, and only the most detached reader would not feel an emotional response to this poem; the sense of loss, the sense of squandered humanity in the final lines leave the reader wanting to step out onto the street and embrace the first stranger they meet.

“Together” by ecodelluvia wraps the reader up in a blanket – a magic carpet, if you will – and whisks them back into a lovely vision of the Arabian Nights (without all the menace and gore, of course). The imagery is strong, and word-choice admirable: “hummingbirds that feast on colorless roses” and even “chocolate covered cheese” are lines that linger long after the first read.

“i like the one without the dress” by cy street is an evocative montage which a reader mores experiences than reads. Time and place are very fluid in this poem, and each stanza is a vignette unto itself; once the reader settles in to the idea that they are being flashed through seasons and space, those crisp moments in each stanza form a meta-narrative which leaves one happily exhausted, a truly enjoyable read.

In all, the contributors to “A Tribute to Women” developed a wonderful, eclectic collection. Thanks to all, and congratulations to the winners and nominees". ~ Mickey Cesar

Mickey Cesar is a former soldier and sailor attending the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), where he lives with an eighteen-pound tomcat named Alexander Nevsky. His poems have appeared in Andwerve, Coal City Review, I-70 Review, The Other Side of Sorrow (Poetry Society of New Hampshire Press, 2006), Kiosk, and other journals. Mickey has been published as a "Pocket Poet" by UnHoly Day Press (Kansas City, 2004) and is also the author of the poetry collection Vanishing Point (219 Press, 2005) available through Amazon.com.

The Red Brick Bistro is virtual open mic peotry read hosted by cafeRg and streamed live on BZoO HomeGrown Radio on Saturday and Sunday evenings at 9 PM EST. An encore performance will be broadcast tonight at 9 PM EST August 27, 2006.

To submit your audio performance poetry for consideration on the Red Brick Bistro, send a MP3 to cafeRg at cafeRg@gmail.com, include 'Red Brick Bistro" in the subject line. If you would likse to have your poetry group featured on the Red Brick Bistro, send an email to cafeRg to the same email as above.