Meet A SplashHall Poetry Poet - Cookie Bristol

Meet Cookie Bristol. Born in Peoria, Illinois, the oldest of 4 children. Started writing poetry in 1967 at the age 14. Graduated from Illinois State University. Married in 1978. 2 children. Retired now and enjoy painting, drawing
with mixed media, sculpting, reading and researching alternative sciences, writing poetry, classical music and classic rock. Lives with husband and 2 cats in East Peoria, Illinois.

Cookie is an active poet at SplashHall Poetry Boards. In addition to the written word Cookie is doing Multi-media poetry aka Cin(E)-Poetry. Stop by and say hi to her. Check her latest Cin(E)-Poem here.

Frank Wilson - Recent IBPC Judge And Staff Writer For The Philadelphia Inquirer Rings The Bell For On-Line Poetry Communities

Recently a Judge for the InterBoard Poetry Community and a Staff Writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer informed the world, well the greater Philly area, about the thriving on-line poetry communities.

Here is Frank's piece on online poetry: Online poetry: A thriving community. You can also visit Frank at his blog - Books, Inq.

While you're surfing around be sure to check out the SplashHall Poetry Community.

Join Me And Congratulate Ceberry and Bittersweet - Top Honors in CafeRg's Mother's Day Poetry Challenge

Please join me at SplashHall Poetry and Congratulate Ceberry First Place for his poem "A Mother and A Child" and BitterSweet Honorable Mention for her poem "Little Sprite". Ceberry has won the Grand prize of a Beautiful Diamond Solitaire Necklace in 14 Karat Gold from Kingsgate Diamonds A $850 Retail Value, compliments of Allen. Both have won the DVD SlamNation and all 4 of the Top 4 poems and poets have won a 5 pak set of Spoken Word and Music from Artvilla, compliments of David Michael Jackson.




Also lets give the Judges a BiG hand too. This was a very intense competition. Everyone worked extra hard. Judge Dick Bakken's commentary can be read here

Thank you everyone that participated and for your wonderful support.

Poet Judge Dick Bakken's Commentary ~ CafeRg's Splash Mother's Day Poetry Competition

Poetry Judges were ask to score poems submitted in CafeRg's Splash Poetry Mother's Day Poetry Competition and choose 4 poems for the SplashHall Poetry Membership to vote on the Top 2 Poems. You can view the poems submitted, final results and winners for the Mother's Day Poetry Contest here. Below is Poet and Judge Dick Bakken's commentary.

"How I Scored My Top Four"

My choice for 4 points is “a week later the cruisers came” by cy street. Though images are not so startling as some in my 2^nd choice, they are competent and this poem is more fully realized. What is startling is a weave of these images into twists and turns that surprise throughout the poem. I am happy to find effort by someone who managed to avoid all that saccharine Hallmark schlock. The poet surprises immediately with comparison of mom to a cactus, underscoring with “yeah” that we are not in for highfalutin sentimentality, then really yanks us to earth—surprising and turning us—with “thirty north twenty,” again with “she is small,” again with “pardon me,” and so on. Even “I love you” twice works since not drowned in surrounding grandiose syrup. “The beach is soft / and the gentle waves know well” is a lapse into what most were regurgitating from Rod McKuen or Hallmark, and the finale line is too cerebral, obtuse, and non-earthy for the rest of the poem. But this is the one poet who got the job done without fainting back into that swamp of clichés-stereotypes-schlock that seemed to mesmerize most all of the others. So kudos are due.


My choice for 3 points is “Everyone Knows” by dublinsteve. This poem flashes such original, startling images—at least through its first half—that it stands out from all others. Though “sun’s shout” is not new—“strafes the edges of the blinds,” “the bully’s huff,” and “orange fire of merthiolate” are strikingly original images that we all can envy. It is too bad that this burst of a beginning suddenly washes out in the image-empty generic rhetoric of the fourth stanza. The poem never recovers. Though the final stanza does flood back to imagery, there is nothing but overused Disney-like stereotypes, clichés, and preciousness. All that opening fire of originality—the genuine hallmark of imagination, and thus of artistic excellence—is long gone by then.


My choice for 2 points—“A Mother and a Child” by ceberry—washes out even sooner. But what a beginning. The first stanza, especially its concluding line, give the liftoff that word-expression is supposed to when language is used to its highest potential, when we call it poetry. Do note how differently that opening stanza works from those that follow, which communicate data much the way a textbook or newspaper does, by telling rather than showing. The only lines that come back to the way that poetry presents data are the final two. And though they comprise a longtime poetry cliché—Wordsworth: “the Child is father of the Man,” etc.—they are nicely rendered.


My choice for 1 point—“In the Eyes of Innocence a Mother is God” by ecodelluvia—manages to avoid the sentimental preciousness that traps most writers into just regurgitating what they have soaked up from Walt Disney’s cutesifying of reality, Hallmark’s saccharine distortions of it, or five-hanky cinema’s laying into the violins to manipulate tears about it. Well, yeah, that title plus its repetition in the final sentence is a bit sticky. But what remains avoids the syrup and schlock that pull the rug out from under artistic integrity. Even though the images are not striking or even notably original—due to such a generic approach—the whole feels competent and euphonious.


I couldn’t score any points for “Mother of the Year” by scarletsphinx because it is so unfulfilled. But I like the shock of the maverick approach. A poem needs more than daring, though—much more than sincerity—so absolutely more than emotion, whether sweet or bitter. This one does achieve it in “snide my choices,” pretty damn awakening diction. However, that is it—since all the rest is but strings of pure cliché. A poem must transmute language, not just toss back what has been said before, no matter how well. But—whoa!—imagine fusing scarletsphinx’s daring with dublinsteve’s startling opening images, cy street’s surprising turns and subject matter, and ecodelluvia’s euphony. We would have created a poet to rival Sylvia Plath at her fiercely best.

--Dick Bakken, May 7, 2006

Toni Award Winning Georgia Me Thursday Presented By Poetic SunShyne ! BzoO Homegrown Radio Special

Your cordially invited to join Poetic SunShyne and Georgia Me this Thursday, May 11, 2006 as SunShyne interviews Toni Award Winner, Queen Of Spoken Word - Georgia Me. If you have never heard of her now is your chance to enjoy the beautiful presence in which this talented sista brings with her.

Who Is Georgia Me:
7x HBO Def Poet
Toni Award Winning, Russell Simons - Def Poetry On Broadway
Def Poetry - European Tour
Featured On Showtime At The Apollo

The show will AIR LIVE on CafeDeSoul Radio www.cafedesoulradio.com and BZOo HomeGrown Radio www.bzoo.org just click a lsiten link on the above sidebar!!

Call In Information:
What: Rhyme Or Reason w/Poetic SunShyne
When: Thursday, May 11, 2006
Time: 10:00 PM EDT 9:00 PM CDT (come early and jive a bit)
Call-In Number: 605-772-3001 Access Number: 627049#
Featured Guest: Georgia Me

I truly hope you will join me on this very special evening!

Sincerely,

SunShyne

Get Yourself A Piece Of The Mother's Day Prize Pool

Have you entered CafeRg's Splash Mother's Day Poetry Contest? Poems need to be in by Friday May 5, 2006. Hey thats 2 days away! Look at what you could win. More details can found at the SplashHall Poetry Boards.



A "Beautiful Diamond Solitaire Necklace in 14 Karat Yellow Gold which is Bezel Set with a very well Cut, High Clarity, Colorless Quarter Carat Diamond" for Mom from Kingsgate Diamonds a $850 retail value, SlamNation's New DVD and a Splash Poetry Challenge Award Banner.

ArtVilla fron Nashville Tennessee has donated four (4) sets of a Spoken Word Five CD Collection. CDs are professional quality with 5 of top Spoken Word Artist:

1. Jared Smith
2. Belinda Subraman
3. Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection
4. Summer Breeze
5. Modern Music Nashville


If you're a blogger you will also win blogging credits from the following blogging communities:




Top poems are also published on our syndicated blogs including Rollin Thunder Poetry, BZoO HomeGrown Radio Blog and SplashHall Art & Poetry.

Mother's Day Poems must be submitted and posted in this forum by Friday, May 5, 2006 8:00 PM EST. Scoring and voting will begin. Winners will be announced on Thursday May 11, 2006.