Rivulets of You
Jacob (Ya'akov) Sapon
About Jacob (Ya'akov) Sapon
I am a musician, poet, educator and Jewish prayer leader living in Philadelphia, PA. Drawn from both Jewish and American folk tradition, my music weaves together the sacred and the secular. I am deeply excited by contradiction and paradox. As a student in ALEPH’s Earth-Based Judaism program, I am currently deepening my knowledge of the powerful streams of Earth-based consciousness that run through Jewish tradition. My hope as an artist is to help catalyze a collective paradigm shift toward a healthier relationship with our humble home on planet Earth. When I am not with my guitar, you can find me visiting my favorite trees and making friends with cats.
About Rivulets of You
This poem and musical setting arose from deep mediation on the book of Leviticus and its laws of Shmita and Yovel. It is an elegy for our planet—a musical immersion in the consequences of ignoring the land’s need for rest. The text explore images of broken covenant. Can purpose and hope can be found amidst despair and grief?
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Rivulets of You
A Leviticus-inspired elegy for the Planet
The dust was crossing o’er the sky
From smokestacks blowing way up high
Jet black fumes of human loves
And consecrated morning doves
When Noah’s rainbow cracked apart
The dust looked like a work of art
It made the sky look like dried blood
And saved us from the warming sun
I dreamed a melody last night
An old Paul Simon tune of hope, and peace, and light
For a moment, I remembered what I was here to do
I’m here to shatter daily into rivulets of You
I feel a graphite pencil scratching marks beneath my skin
I feel the tabernacle burning Frankincense within
So take my bloody offering, let me shed these bloody clothes
Let blood and water purify the final lethal dose
You can have the Righteousness; I’ll happily bear the Sin
Let’s burn the holy dollar to the Powerplant within
The light comes pouring through my blinds
I dreamed I glimpsed the ocean for a final sacred time
For a moment I remembered what I was here to do
I’m here to shatter daily into rivulets of you
The covenant of the tablets meets the covenant of the calf
Carl Sagan’s spinning planet meets a comet in its path
Let’s melt down all the jewelry and we’ll build a craft to Mars
We’ll take life as we know it in a thousand mason jars
We’ll start anew a colony and give the land a rest
In her fever-addled nightmares, as she strangles for her breath
A covenant arrangement is no promise kept for free
The profits of the pavement sound the horn of Jubilee
I saw a mountain from the sky
From the plane’s rear window saw the buildings rushing by
For a moment I remembered what I was here to do
I’m here to shatter daily into rivulets of you
If I forget my purpose let my tongue be rendered mute
Let the suffering of all beings form the hollow of a flute
Let sound rise up like ashes from the burning of a flame
Let music wash away the dust and purify the name