Gold, Hay and Stubble: One Journeyman's Ten-Year Poetic Diary: 1996-2006: One Journeyman's Poetic Diary - Tapa blanda

John C. Sparks is a senior staff engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio and has taught mathematics at Sinclair Community College for over twenty years. In late 2003, Sparks received the Ohio Association of Two-Year Colleges' 2002-2003 Adjunct Teacher of the Year award. He and his wife, Carolyn (photo), have celebrated thirty-five years of marriage and have two sons, Robert and Curtis, who are both married. Sparks is a lifelong resident of Xenia, Ohio. Sparks has written and published two volumes of poetry, Rhyme for All Seasons, and Mixed Images, and a three-hundred and thirty-page mathematics textbook, Calculus Without Limits. His current work, Gold, Hay and Stubble: One Journeyman's Poetic Diary is the culmination of six years of poetry work and contains one-hundred and-five of his most favorite pieces.

John C. Sparks, shown on the left with his wife Carolyn of 37 years, is a native of Xenia, Ohio and a Xenia High School Graduate-class of 1965. He went on to earn technical degrees at Wright State University and the Air Force Institute of Technology. Like the current United States Poet Laureate, Mr. Ted Kooser, Sparks has not spent his career as an academic poet, but as an engineer and teacher of mathematics.In late 2003, Sparks received the Ohio Association of Two-Year Colleges' 2002-2003 Adjunct Teacher of the Year Award for his long-term efforts in improving mathematics education in the greater Dayton area. In the technical writing genre, Sparks has written a commercially-available book, Calculus without Limits, intended as a study aid for first-year calculus students. He has also written a compilation of mathematical formulas and processes, The Handbook of Essential Mathematics, distributed freely in Adobe format to the American public by the Air Force Research Laboratory. Gold, Hay, and Stubble is the culmination of ten years of learning the art and mechanics of writing poetry. The book contains 131 of Sparks' personal favorites, selected on the basis of quality and spiritual impact. Many other poems were written during this time period, and most were published in two preceding, locally-distributed chapbooks.