Into Light   by M. D. Friedman

(Liquid Light Press 2023)

Into Light Front Cover

Into Light is M. D. Friedman's first full-length poetry book and reflects the experiences, observations, dreams and epiphanies of a lifetime. It speaks quietly about the calling of the heart and loudly about injustices of the world. Eclectic in style and content, this collection, connects both the inner and outer realities of a life well lived.


You can purchase the print and e-book versions available at Liquid Light Press Lulu Bookstore, or any other book distributor. It is also available as auidobooks (as Volume One, Volume Two & Volume Three) at all audiobook outlets, and as albums on all music streaming services (except for Spotify).

Mad Dog Friedman's BandCamp page is the exclusive home for enjoying everything Into Light, (https://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/into-light-the-poems-of-m-d-friedman). This is the only single place you can listen to ALL 67 of the audio poems from M. D. Friedman's INTO LIGHT poetry book as well as read all the text, and watch all associated "digital poem" videos for free without annoying advertisements. If you decide to purchase unlimited download and streaming access, not only are supporting new media poetry, you will also be able to download to all BONUS ITEMS including the "musical" version of "Two as One" from Mad Dog Friedman's WORD album, the image files for the front and back cover of the print edition, and both the pdf and epub versions of the e-book. It is the the best place online to enjoy the entire INTO LIGHT multimedia collection.

INTO LIGHT Poems by M. D. Friedman - Listen and Watch on BandCamp for Free.

 

What others are saying about Into Light:

These poems are the masterwork of a different kind of man than most men I’ve known in my 73 years. He is, as we used to say, "his own man." More than a disciple of some orthodox poetry "church," you'll meet a mindful, funny, wise and compassionate person in these texts, unafraid to speak honestly and vulnerably. From Li Po to Robert Johnson, memory care to contemporary politics, grieving lament to defiant slam, MD lays it all out about as clearly as a poet can while leaving enough tantalizing mystery to feed the reader's soul for days on end. He really believes "It is a miracle to be alive."! His poems encourage me to believe it, too!!
~ wayne a. gilbert, poet and Colorado Governor's Creative Leadership Award winner

This long anticipated poetry collection opens like a portal that will rainbow a monochrome world. Reminiscent of Rumi and Hafiz, you will taste the landscape with your tongue, unable to separate your own inner body from the mountains and sky you inhabit, “not the waterfall, but the water falling,” ... “no longer sculpted by gravity.” A love poem to life herself, you will want to take your time, savoring each languid line. “I am taken by how much I need this.”!
~ Valerie A Szarek, poet, musician, Spiritual teacher and Colorado Authors League award winner

You know when you begin to read his manuscript spanning decades of his life, that M.D. Friedman is a poet and musician who captures the light then casts it over the pages - perhaps not always reaching the darkest corners, but illuminating a more remarkable life for all its vicissitudes. Whether the rhythm be felt in the exacting nature of one’s mind, or in a Colorado forest, this collection of poems will take you there then back again, where you will perhaps remember standing still, “deep into the mouth of fog”. You will know as you read on, there is hope the fog will lift, for the light to return, or perhaps experience acceptance of those affecting moments in which M. D.’s luminous words resonate: “I wish I could take you. Here in the middle/of nowhere, there is so much to share./The silence shatters into light.// It is a miracle just to be alive.”
~ Lynn Kincanon, Poet Laureate of Loveland, Colorado

WORD by Mad Dog Friedman features musical
compositions based on M. D. Friedman’s poetry and
includes musical versions of seven of the poems from
M. D. Friedman’s most recent poetry book, Into Light.

Here is a video of M. D. Friedman performing two poems from Into Light ("A Good Dog" and "Cruel Surgery") at the R Gallery in Boulder, Colorado, on January 24, 2023.

Here's one of the pieces from my set as a featured poet at the 3rd Annual Karen Chamberlain Poetry Festival on March 30th, 2013. I want to thank all my friends at the Bouldering Poets, Slam Nuba and Freedom of Speech poetry readings for all their support and inspiring me to write and perform this piece. I am talking to you. This is what my good friend, the master jazz Sufi poet, Wayne Gilbert, had to say about this poem when I sent it to him: Omigod old man i wanna be in the audience when you preach this sermon. i love the "half" stretch esp. wanted to shout "amen" holler "you tell it brothuh" collapse in the aisle speaking in affirmative tongues. i feel your words your chant rant pour out of my own body my own heart mind desire. you tapped a root in this one! i wanna be there when you shake it down at some open mic tell 'em all how it is!

 

 


Read Robert King's interview with me about my chapbook, Leaning Toward Whole, as published in the Colorado Poets' E-Words Issue #17 (Winter 2012).


 
Leaning Toward Whole Front Cover

Announcing the release of M. D. Friedman's fifth poetry book, Leaning Toward Whole, from Liquid Light Press. Both print and e-book editions are available through the publisher at www.liquidlightpress.com. Leaning Toward Whole is also available in a special *enhanced multimedia EPUB edition (EPUB formatted e-book editions are for iPads & iPhones ) in the iTune's Book Store for iBook Reader software only.

Please watch the following video for a sample of the work:


Welcome to M. D. Friedman's Poetry Page Where You May:


Listen to some of my most out there audio:


Listen or download free recordings of my experimental audio poetry:

  • My work has appeared in numerous small press publications and online magazines including the Improv Magazine, Hiss Quarterly , Wired Art from Wired Hearts, Kookamonga Square, Job's Turkey, Arcade, The Green Horse and The Dry Creek Review.
  • Contact M. D. Friedman to do readings or workshops.

Please help keep poetry alive by supporting live poetry!



Older Poetry Books by M. D. Friedman

"Where We Reach is passionate, well-crafted, and deeply insightful poetry. [ M. D.'s] control of sound and language is excellent. … a particularly unique, very powerful voice and set of insights as well: …[His] understanding of the cross-connection of the arts, and … ability to read artists of other genres, is both extraordinary and very, very moving." -- Jared Smith


Click on the book cover to view a full free pdf preview version of each book.

Click to preview Body of the Mind

The Body of the Mind

(an "interlocking medley" of twenty of his "most purposeful poems")

Also available as a "Print & Listen" e-book.

Click to buy.

Click to preview From Here to Here

From Here to Here

(an “involuntary exploration of the polarity of love and loneliness”)

Only available as a "Print & Listen" e-book.

Click to preview Nothing Else Matters

Nothing Else Matters

(runs the gauntlet from the comic to the tragic, from the political to the sublime)

Only available as a "Print & Listen" e-book.

Click to preview Where We Reach

Where We Reach

Click to buy.

(with brutal honesty and sometimes acrid humor, M. D. soars and stumbles from confusion to love)

Also available as a printable e-book

Click to buy.

You can also order from Amazon, Kindle or Smashwords.


Digital Poetry by M. D. Friedman,  A New Genre of Poetics

Click to view

  • The Word" (2007) is the first digital poem  I ever created.   It's the dada fusion of all my creative pursuits at once.  It represents a new genre of poetics, fusing my experimental sound art, digital art, photography and animation with original spoken word poetry. This piece deals in a humorous way with the difficulty of expressing transformational experience in written language.


Click to view Know Where to Go Crazy

Now on I-Tunes!

  • Original poetry, sound art, visual art, photography, and animation by M. D. Friedman highlight this ground breaking video short. This work showcases a growing mastery of M. D.'s combined talents to produce experimental, experiential, electronic literature fusing several multimedia elements into a new genre of poetics. Featuring state of the art 3D animation, "Know Where to Go Crazy" (2009) is a two voice poem with the second voice heard animated into the viewer's head.

Click to View

  • "Forever Trespass” (2007) is a digital poem exploring the question, "Does the poem own the poet or the poet own poem?" The sound art for this piece was constructed from the 2D (2 directional) poem, "Forever Trespass". The "normal" voice is reading the poem vertically (down the columns) and the "harmonized" voice is reading the same poem horizontally (across the rows). The video was made by animating my photographs and digital art and integrating it with the original sound art.

Click to view
  • "The Kill" was M. D. Friedman's first 2D (2 directional) poem composed in the Spring of 2007.  M. D. Friedman is reading the poem vertically (down the columns) & Mariamne Engle Friedman is reading the same poem horizontally (across the rows).  A live performance of this poem was recorded in April of 2008.  It was then enhanced with original sound art, animation, and visual art to produce this experimental poetry video in the Fall of 2010.


Click to view the video.

Never Ask a Poet Directions is a digital poem (video) that resulted from a collaboration between M. D. Friedman and SUB(liminal) Space Research Group. The poetry, sound art and video were created by M. D. Friedman. The choreography was created by SUB(liminal) Space Research Group and performed by dancers, Caitlin M. Gill and Kim Cunningham in conjunction with Boulder Fringe Festival's 2011 Poetry in Motion Project. Caitlin M. Gill's and Kim Cunningham's performance of their artistic response to M. D. Friedman's "Never Ask a Poet Directions" poem was videotaped August 13, 2011 by M. D. Friedman as part of the Poetry in Motion Project event. The video was edited and original sound art for the piece was created by M. D. Friedman in December of 2010 and January of 2012. The text only version of "Never Ask a Poet Directions" was first published by Liquid Light Press as part of M. D. Friedman's Leaning Toward Whole chapbook released in June of 2011.


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