Trained as a musician and inspired by the likes of John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and Smokey Robinson, it's no wonder that David Friedman's poems shimmer with pulsating life and musicality all of their own.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Infinity, Friedman introduces us to the world as seen through the eyes of Huckleberry and leads intrepid explorers on an infinite journey though the simplicity of his mind.
Distilling the magic of a single thought into humorous and poignant poems and poetic stories, Friedman challenges us to see the world and ourselves anew-to find fresh truths and new modes of understanding in ancient texts, old pop song lyrics, and everyday objects.
Exploring themes of faith, happiness, self-discovery, and much, much more, these poems will open your heart to deeper realities and challenge your mind to engage authentically with itself.
So put down the remote, open this collection of fantastical poems, and be prepared for a wonderful and hilarious magical mystery ride through the world of Huckleberry Infinity.
About the Author: David's Huckleberry grew up in a round stone house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright within a co-operative community. His parents were artistic and progressive. After losing his parents as a teenager, he became much more involved in his personal journey. Influenced by his childhood mentor cousin who fasted fifty-four days in Buddhist monastery in Japan, David incorporated that information into his Bohemian musician lifestyle.
Living in New York City in the sixties he often stopped by Swami A.C. Baktivadanta's storefront on Second Avenue and Second Street and heard many of his lectures. He once took him to Staten Island and to the airport. Swami told him that it was possible to be enlightened through thought but it is very difficult. Poetry came to mean an artistic form of this journey.
It was there in the storefront in 1967 where he met Bob Dylan, only briefly. It was only years later that he put this together in his mind. He and Dylan wanted to seek understanding through thought. What was Dylan doing there? He was hiding from the downside of fame, which was wrecking his personal life and marriage. He had no interest in a Hare Krishna temple and the people there. He didn't like them and they didn't like him, but no one was walking up to him in the street and calling him a geek.
After reading and memorizing many of Dylan's lyrics, David was strongly affected by the process of Dylan's mind, as were many of his generation.
Labeled a wordsmith by his SO (significant other), it wasn't until later in life when a clash with a close friend and musician removed the veil that blocked his ability to rap on demand or in other words improvise poetry, which he had been working on for quite some time. His friend, also an aspiring filmmaker, would stop him while they were driving screaming stop so he could take a picture not realizing that would many times risk a traffic accident by an abrupt stop. His friend would pay no attention to what was going on around them. He even sent him down the wrong way street on the main drag in Kingston, NY. David pulled the car aside and started rapping spontaneously. "Oh no, not the rap," his friend said. After that David saw he had the ability to rap and its effects, and he has been using rap in his poetry ever since. After that his friend was much more discreet in disrupting Huckleberry's driving.
Many of these poems are raps. Either four-line stanzas or using the internal rhyme scheme, a form brought forth in Dylan's 60s stanzas. In many of his poems, Friedman uses spontaneity exploded from his mind and edited or completed later.
A trained musician with a master's degree from Purchase College, David Friedman brings a deep love of jazz and classical improvisation to his music. His experience working as a piano tuner and musician coupled with meditation cultivated an ability to hear sound and silence as one, enabling him to seek self-understanding and bring forth communication.
Friedman lives in the Hudson Valley where he, among other things, feeds wild turkey and deer, appreciating the simplicity of their minds and vibrations. He spends a lot of time at his vacation home in Vermont.
For breakfast he usually eats his words.
