Give Me Oranges

No more blues no more
longing for you
I’ve had it up to here
with salt in my beer
waiting for you
to come back home
your breadcrumb gifts
lead up to my door
no no more blues
I’m sitting at home
not hitting the road
and going it alone
not painting the town
in red white and blue
no no more poems
and no more roams
no no no no more tomes
and no longing tones
no no more blues
I’m going away
but then yet again
today I just may stay
one more day
and then I’ll go on
no more blues for you
in my own bed at home
across the dusty floor
I’ll push a lonely broom
no no more blues
I’ve paid all my dues
besides I’ve not a clue
what I’d do without you
I’d be up a tree
I don’t know how to flee
I’ll never be free
but I’ve paid all my fees
I’ve thrown away the keys
to my orange heart
I’m sitting all alone
at the top of the world
no no more blues
no more longing for you
Chega de Saudade
goodbye sadness
I want peace and beauty
to go away too
anyway peace is far from here
and beauty gone to seed
a kiss is silence
the flicker is still
under the green fern
I’m going to pick it up
and put it in the compost
no no more blues
give me orange and gold
apricots and marigolds
sapphron and yellow
the sober sun of morning.

Note: The lyrics to the song “No More Blues” is an adaptation, or a rewrite, by Jessie Cavanaugh and Jon Hendricks, of the 1957 Bossa song Chega de Saudade, music written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes (O Poetinha, “The little poet” of Brazil). Hundreds of versions have been recorded. Literally translated, chega de saudade would read in English enough of longing. A comparison of Moraes’s original lyrics with those of “No More Blues” shows how interpretive the Cavanaugh Hendricks rewrite of “Chega de Saudade” is, and the two songs seem to be a conversation between the one who went away but hears the call of the one who stayed home. It was while working on “No More Blues” for the jazz band Tunes Tardes that I wound up writing my own “version,” even further from the original, this one a poem, namely, as seen above, “Give Me Oranges.”