Anything Goes in Poetry Contest--As Long as It’s Good : Culture: Performance artists take center stage tonight at Casa Palma restaurant in Santa Ana. The top prize is $30.

Can’t stand audience participation? Then sit in the back during Gary Tomlinson’s turn in The Factory Readings’ first Performance Poetry Contest tonight.

“I move around, I come close, I touch people and shake things,” says the poet, an imposing, 350-pound 6-footer with waist-length hair. “I believe in voice modulation, so I whisper--I want you to lean in--and when I have you close, I yell at you.”

Tomlinson plans to compete against 19 others at Casa Palma restaurant, where contest sign-ups begin at 6:30 p.m. His dramatic style won’t necessarily dominate, however.

“Performance poetry is any poetry that’s performed--or read. That includes people who dance and sing and people who just stand up and read,” says Jana Kiedrowski, who, with Lee Mallory, is co-producer of the event and co-founder of the monthly Factory Readings of poetry.

“The motto for our readings is ‘anything goes--as long as it’s good,’ ” said Mallory, a Rancho Santiago College English teacher and tireless poetry advocate.

Three judges--including Kiedrowski--will scrutinize competitors’ content and technique. Good content translates to lasting power, and good poetry transmits “a strong feeling or statement that remains in your mind,” Mallory said. “It touches you, provides a moment of enlightenment, shocks, surprises, titillates you, or carries a universal message.” Good technique involves “vivid imagery” that evokes vital mental pictures, he said.

All poetic forms are acceptable--from haiku to Shakespearean sonnets--but readers who emote longer than five minutes get the hook. “They’ll be literally dragged off the stage,” Mallory said. “We have a bouncer.”

Rigid criteria notwithstanding, the contest will fit with the casual atmosphere of the Factory Readings, one of Orange County’s largest such gatherings, which for three years has drawn audiences of 50 to 100.

The judges, all poets themselves, won’t kick back with a glass of chilled Chablis, however. With such a subjective, personal art, it’s no simple task to pick the best, they say, and it’s easy to be swayed by sheer histrionics.

“Some people can read the phone book very expressively,” said judge Betty Dixon, a Rancho Santiago English and literature teacher.

Two popular contests sponsored by Poets Reading Inc., a now-defunct Fullerton group, inspired tonight’s oratory. But poets and judges alike have some reservations about the very concept.

“I have a philosophical problem with poetry contests,” said Tomlinson, whose writing ranges from biting social commentary to lyric love odes. “Who is to judge who is right or wrong? If a lovely grandmother from the South reads a poem about her seven children, and someone else reads a 20-minute tirade about the political system, how do you rate them? They both have social value.”

Thomas Rush, another of the contest’s judges, worries about discouraging aspiring poets who don’t win. He’s also dubious about time limitations.

“Some of my best poems go over five minutes,” said Rush, who co-produces biweekly poetry readings at Fullerton’s Gallery 57.

Still, such events can mean more than a $30 check--the contest’s top prize. After hearing Rush read, a publisher from Event Horizon Press in Palm Springs signed him up. His first book is due this fall.

Moreover, participants emphatically agree that anything that brings poetry to the public is worthwhile. Mallory, who has published four books and introduced many local poets to the craft, says performance can bring poetry to life for those who think it’s only for recluses who exist with “their noses in a book.”

Indeed, audience response is “half the fun” says Rita Mitzner, who also hopes to compete Monday.

“I write a lot of love poetry, and I’ve often had men come and tell me it touches something inside of them,” she says. “That’s neat, because men don’t always get in touch with those emotions.”