Yaffa

Wild Places is about the wild places of planet earth, and also the wild places of our breathing, primal, animal bodies. With the loss of the wilderness and thus wildness of planet earth, we have also begun to lose the…

Flowering Dogwoods was written with the inspiration of the early-blooming dogwoods of Mt Auburn cemetery. There is something errily beautiful about those early simple blooms hovering over the snow covered graves. That began my looking. Then I was sitting under…

The melody of this song has been playing my hands for so many years. Maybe five years before I wrote any lyrics to it. Actually I lived in just that first chord for I don't know how many months before…

I wrote this song the day after my 8th and nearly final surgery of a very long journey of healing. I think the words speak for themselves. As often does the song. But it is about childhood trauma, of overcoming…

Mystic Waters is a song about the waterways of Mystic River and Lakes in Arlington, Massachusetts. I caught the first glimmers of this melody in a moment with a dear friend just standing by the waters, watching the light of…

Set that Love Free is a song inspired by the ancient writing, Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), reflecting on the fleeting nature of reality. Kohelet was written thousands of years ago and is an ancient scroll in Ketuvim (The Writings), which is part…

The Prophets is inspired by the writings of philosopher and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel. It begs questions of human agency and primacy of connection to the divine. The chorus line, “Days passing, water aflame” speaks to the seemingly ordinary nature…