Chris Franke is an American experimental poet from Charlottesville, Virginia.
He has performed as a member of the Endangered Species Trio as a reader of his poetry to harp and flute accompaniment.
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 Press and featured a number of concrete pieces.
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.