tree river.

My name is Trevor Friedman. These are some of my poems, songs, thoughts, and subconscious ramblings. Please read them out loud. I also write and sing in a band called Tree River: treeriver.bandcamp.com. Thank you for visiting. Copyright © Trevor Friedman. All rights reserved.

[treeriver]

Searching Into Your Everything

I.

Searching into your eyes, Glaring into the deepest infinity, The root of the meaning, The gleaming of expanse, Your unbounded everything Is overwhelmingly powerful. And I see the ripples of the light. The person you are And the one you could be Both grow from the shell of the holiest seed Planted inside your mind like a tree. Your life and love, A mystery. Emitting a misty halo of truth, Just barely, yet infinitely, outside my grasp. Are you actually calling me in? As if you have always known me, But have only just now shown me the door? What are we waiting for? Am I worthy to enter? And if I am then what do I ask? How do I arrive at last to the center? To sink into what lies beneath That sheltering, shifting, and shimmering sheet That your whole life is projected onto, Streaming through dreams On a canvas of closeness. Your mind will be the projector, And I will be the protector. Righteous, riddled, and raw, All I have are questions.

[treeriver]

Searching Through Your Everything

II.

Searching into your heart, Peering with queries, I have been bequested the test. My quest for your everything. For the hub of your hurting. And you’re flirting with flaunting it. Reeling me in with feelings, Together through chance, I join you in wanting it, A dangerous and daunting dance. Your pain, a flame, Ignites the torch that guides us Deep into the dark. Scary and exciting. I follow your physical wallowing, A flow with the motion of your open emotions, Your mountainous moods, A Bermuda triangle of conflict. How far in can we go? And still find our way back to the start? The here-and-now, A balancing act. And a stark contrast from back Before all of this began, Your painful everything. Powerful and untamed, The suffering ingrained, Your freedom unclaimed, Dance with me into it. The unknowable chance. The horrifying and beautiful. The root of your everything. And all we have is each other.

[treeriver]

Searching Into Your Everything

III.

Searching into your tears, Dancing in the dark, And chasing down the dawn, We have breached the unbreakable.  Opening scars, And breaking the bars, From breath to death to stars. Where have we gone? And at what lengths? How have we managed the strength? The courage we mustered, The trust through the thin, Gallivanting through gusts of the wind Armed with nothing but our curious minds, We valiantly approach the gate, And navigate every passionate rupture,  Every chasm and cluster, Alliance. Compliance. Reliance on humanism. No fakeness or euphemism. But light through a prism of openness. We have built this empire together, Lit this fire forever, And come so far through the dark. Nothing is wrong if we’re sharing the song, This dangerous dance Into precarious places. We are forever strong, Closely connected and protected, With nothing but defenses, And no other weapons are drawn.

[treeriver]

Searching Into Your Everything

IV.

Searching into your future, We have risen mighty and tall. Standing strong on the edge of the cliff of tomorrow. How will we deal with the fear and the sorrow? What other eyes and ears will we borrow? I can feel it approaching, As we turn to peer into the inevitable spectacle Of our distancing past. This work must somehow last. All the hurt and the dreams, Shared from the start, Your heart’s become a partner, A master of art, Of the strangest kind. From heart to soul to a melting of minds, I wish I could tell you What more we have in store, But the sad truth is that I have never done this before. Build up such a strange little friendship And steer the ship out, To the never ending end. The abyss in the air. Our future unshared. What other choice do we have But to face the future head on? To embrace the truth that all will end. To understand ending as an unending process. And to continue dancing deeply, Into the infinite heart of our everything.

[treeriver]

Ego, ego

Ego, ego When will you let ME go? When will I climb up And dive Out into the sea? Of “all not me” I want to smile At my inner child And never be afraid Of my forever age I may not With all I’ve got Ever come close To the mountain top IT’S OKAY TO BE SMALL I don’t have to yell Or let the world know I’m alive and well Cause sometimes I suck Sometimes I’m shit Sometimes I should just shut up And SIT.

[treeriver]

Clever Trevor

Call me clever Trevor The engine revver Cleverly jesting forever in reverie Never letting life ever get the best of me Oh hello future, Hello life, And hello too, to my future wife, Hum me a tune and hug me, honey Come home and give me a run for my money And it’d be lovely to love me

[treeriver]

sweet tree, by sweet tree

13 track album

hello extended tribe! i’m excited to release my first solo record which is comprised of 5 poems and 8 songs about love, adventure, and truth. i am excited about the way the poems came out in particular. i used layering and panning to accent certain lines and add emotional responses. it turns spoken word poetry into poetic music. i hope you enjoy this short record. <3. sweettree.bandcamp.com

[treeriver]

So I Returned To The Beach

My love,  Every time I blink,  I bring you right back the brink of me feeling you.  To the memory of what you forever have meant to me.  When I focus my mind, I can move to your melodies,  Which now make nothing more than a soundtrack to my dreams.

I’m left with a loop of you smiling at the beach where we met.  You were dancing in the sand that day.  You were dancing in the sun that day.  You were dancing on top of my soul that day.

Life laughs at me loudly knowing I no longer have a choice  But to wait as the weight of my heart pulls me down,  Deep into the ocean of the songs that we shared.  The music is still stuck in my head, my love.

So I returned to the beach,  In hopes of receiving any seemingly seeable semblance of you.

The tide is out,  My eyes are dry,  And here in the salty spray of the wind,  I look forward to every blink that retrieves you.

[treeriver]

Nah

Stay believing. Namaste. Hey, you leaving? Nah, I must stay.

[treeriver]

Brother Bear

Brother Bear With your sacred soul Your warmth is engaging Your wisdom is old

With an open heart You extend your paw Your touch is so gentle Despite your sharp claws

A born protector You will keep me safe And share what you love  With such gleaming grace

I’m forever lucky To see your wisdom flow Because the more I know you  The more I know

[treeriver]

Ocean Goddess

Ocean goddess Lion heart Her waking life A work of art Wading through Her river's kiss Will soothe your soul And clear your mist When her water rises Her currents' trance Will draw you deep Into her ocean dance Then out to the horizon Of her dreamiest days Her soul is the sunset Her love, the rays

[treeriver]

Mama Mountain

hello Mama Mountain  how do you do? i heard we’re related and i think that it’s true 

cause all of my colors are your colors too my browns and my greens my blacks and my blues 

and we both love the wind how it blows through and breathes and just like my hair how it flows through your trees 

and like you i’m growing i’m taller with time and the higher i feel the higher i climb 

and also, we’re both bipolar we get strong and then weak we have seasons and changes we have valleys and peaks 

you see, we’re so similar you Mountain and me, that’s why through all drama my Mama you’ll be. 

[treeriver]

The Window

Alone in a room Lit up by the light of the moon, I walked up slow And peered out through the window In the infinite night, Humbled by the depth and the size I felt hopelessly small Meaningless to the always and all Then slowly I pressed My hands on the glass Pushed open the window Like removing a mask I felt the wind Heavy and cold come rushing in And a strange feeling arose My human body went stiff and froze I closed my eyes But could still see as if they were open wide And out in high space The starry sky revealed a face "Hello there" he said "Do you know who I am? I'm the face that you see When you understand." The longer I stared The clearer it seemed The face that I saw Was me A strong, wise wildling smiling A WILDLING, SMILING! I blinked once again And everything came to a silent end My body was free And the face in the sky, I could no longer see But a thought remained Powerful, filling my quieted brain That my way to grow Is to submit to the size of the world and let go

[treeriver]

Cymbal

This crash is symbolic It’s not just the sound But the numbers and notes Sent express to your bed Through the endless free mail Post-sex and post-gender Neither male nor female Shipped in a vessel Across a choppy sea The waves slap the body And the body pushes back Wood on water on wood on water And tiny human men scramble Unable to separate ocean from rain Soaked to the bone Wrinkling flesh Softening into nothing No shoes or jacket No extra coat of paint To stop the peeling of the layer Of the name of the barge No space in the storm For words or cries Only life, death, noise And infinite change Enormous gusts of wind Silence every thought and song

[treeriver]

To Give and Receive

To live and believe Is to give and receive And hopefully hold both poles to breathe Sharing air And heavenly energy Pressuring pleasure’s release The ring that we bring Through our bodies And between Streams in a circle of love And our pull Is powerful Like showers from above The flow is real It’s something you lovingly feel When you’re in sync You don’t think And your bodies grow and heal Your essence does the talking And its presence can get loud Pounding through the walls and ceiling Peeling back the clouds

[treeriver]

Relative

Size is relative A brother or a sister To the look in your eyes When you are high and mighty Up on top of the mountain With your hands open Your mouth fills with nothing AND THERE IS NO RHYME NECESSARY No song is forced out When polarities are matched Fire sparks a foggy orange sky And cloudy thoughts float by Beyond human vision. Your grip is already too loose To think further than right now. And you are left here With no worries or dreams Of that which has preceded. No need to connect the dots Or fill the blanks With an empty brain, A half-full moon, And a faint pulse. Lukewarm blood flows While a distant breeze Barely shakes a leaf. No stories will be told And memories always fade. THERE IS NO NEED TO BE SPECIAL Especially not now, As if it would be possible To bring words back To how you actually feel, From molten lava to lost emotion. Tonight, there is no sound Coming from your lungs No beautiful song No chorus or verse Just you and Universe. You refrain from singing Only to feel present For just this One Single Moment.

[treeriver]

Give Me A Yes

I wonder what wonders I’ll wander into. Thunder? Rain? Pleasure? Pain? Whatever I lose, There’s more to gain. Gain, reverb, Nouns, adverbs Hopefully the poetry Comes flowing openly. How many will I write? How many days? Nights? Campfires? Burn? Dance choirs? Learn? I want songs and birds And all words heard. From my mouth cage And to my page, Pouring out like my FOUNTAIN AGE

(How’s that for a line? Like my internal rhyme? I don’t know. It’s fine I guess. Don’t give me a no Give me a yes.)