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the miraculous

is not rare

 

what's rare

are the eyes

 

to see it

"Individually and collectively, we will stop suffering from dramatic crises when we stop being secretly in love with them, and turn our gaze instead to the astonishing and endless beauty of creation." 

—Chris Spark

i’d like to write

a poem for people

who never read poems

it would be hard

it would have to have

legs to jump up and down

and little arms to wave

to get their attention

but first it would have to

sneak into their house

you’ll sit sometimes

and wonder

whether god ever had

any plan for you

when you swore

at one point he did

but now any plan seems

far away

and irrelevant

which of course

is part of the plan

he never had for you

if i had a football team

their colors would be

oak-leaf green against

the gold of dry summer 

California grass about an hour

before sunset and

practice would be

canceled constantly

Books

BOOKS

Of Geometry & Jesus - 3a - Front Only
Science Spell - 13 (XL) - Front Only
Kindle Cover - HW - 1
Final 1e - Lg

Of Geometry & Jesus

Essays from Outside the Fishbowl of Western Culture

(Volume 2 of the

"Making Belief" series)

The Science Spell

Essays on Why Science Can Coexist

with Spirituality

(Volume 1 of the

"Making Belief" series)

Haiku Wisdom

101 Daily Morsels

for the Spirit

All White Option - Chris 1d3
Poem Book

Advice for Me

and Maybe You

Poems

latest poem book
Poem

Free this Morning

Poems

The Morning I Married the Sky

Poems

In The Press

From Amazon Reviews of

Chris's poetry

Chris has an eye, and an ear for the sights and sounds the world makes, those that often slip past. He stays attuned for the rest of us. And he communicates the music that is found there, and gives us his clear-eyed (and sharply heard) translations of what most of us let disappear before it even gets here, to where we are. Necessary poems.

Kevin Dyer

Loved this book, soulful and wistful and whimsical... Without an ounce of drama or soppiness. No negativity or torment either. Just Chris's own unique view...he really 'sees' the world and his place in it... He imparts an element of contentment to me as I read. Great for those moments of respite, where one sinks into their favorite seat, with a steaming mug on the table next to them. I first bought the Kindle edition, but then decided that the electronic gadget did no justice to the emotional content of the book, so I also bought the hard copy. My only regret is that I could not leave two reviews! More please! '

re-reading these poems is like... sharing a cup of coffee with an old friend in a coffee shop. Dingman's humor, insight, and open-hearted acceptance of the world in all its wonder provides a refreshing pause to a day. read his poems. then reread them.enjoy the dance.

Andrew Campbell

CC

Bio

BIO

Chris Writes

Chris Spark is a recently adopted pen name.

You'll find some of my past work under my given name, Chris Dingman. 

Listen to the Music:

a little more about me

About Me

My official writing career began in college where I wrote humor for The Harvard Lampoon. As graduation loomed and I looked intently within, poetry also began emerging. But it felt too irreverent and strange for me to show the world. After college, I went on to wear the worldly hats of science and math teacher, comedy screenwriter, singer-songwriter, and back to screenwriter.

Around 2010, though, I started missing that old irreverent strangeness. So I tried a new approach to creativity. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t have any expectations. I set aside time in the morning to sit with coffee, a notebook, a view out a window, and complete permission. I could write anything or nothing at all.

That’s when more poems emerged. They were perhaps a little less strange, but they were also more tender. And they were, often enough, still irreverent. They felt like sparks thrown from a way of seeing and being that I had been unofficially cultivating through psychotherapy, an eclectic reading list, journal writing, meditation, and just plain living. I try to describe that way of seeing and being in prose in my philosophical essays.   

Bells & Whistles

I graduated from Harvard, summa cum laude with a BA in Biology, in 1987. Since then I’ve optioned a comedy screenplay to Warner Bros., done other writing work for Hollywood, released three CDs of original songs while gigging with the band Crooked Roads, and published several books of poetry and philosophical non-fiction. One of my Lampoon pieces was recently included alongside those of John Updike and Conan O’Brien in The Best of the Harvard Lampoon: 140 Years of American Humor. One of my poetry books, Advice for Me and Maybe You, was a best-selling book at The Depot Bookstore in Mill Valley, CA. I’m a contributor to The American Bystander, which Newsweek called “the last great humor magazine.”

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The feeling that life is mundane is nothing but a spell we sometimes fall under.

I can help you break the spell. Twice a week, anyway. The other days, it's up to you.

My bi-weekly poems—and photographs and poems married with photographs—are meant to knock out walls, take you on left turns, and generally remind you of things you've gotten too busy to remember you know.

Sign up below and get something alive and squirming in your in-box twice a week. 

You'll get poems from previous collections and also ones that just fell off the turnip truck.

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And, less importantly, me on Facebook.

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