Chris Franke is an American experimental poet from

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

. His work includes concrete poetry, sound poetry,

performance poetry Performance poetry is a broad term, encompassing a variety of styles and genres. In brief, it is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe p ...

, and various forms of conventional poetry. He has performed as a member of the ''Endangered Species Trio'' as a reader of his poetry to harp and flute accompaniment. His poems have also been included in the paintings of other artists. Franke has performed sound poetry readings and more conventional poetry readings in Northeast Ohio for decades. His first book of poetry, ''Title'', was published in 1969 by the

Cleveland State University Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...

Press and featured a number of concrete pieces. He coined the terms "flip words" and "toe-faced words" to describe mirror reflection words and puddle reflection words respectively. He also coined the terms "typoons" to describe free-form (non-linear) emoticons he has had in print since ''Title'', "articles" to describe visual poetry collages, and has extended the meaning of the word "versicle" to also mean very small books of poetry, particularly concrete poetry.''The Protext Primer'', Will Napoli, ed., 1st and 2nd editions, 2007, 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions, 2008, Protext Press

References

Living people American male poets English-language poets Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from Charlottesville, Virginia Visual poets {{US-poet-stub