Miranda Lambert’s ‘Bluebird’ Lyrics Were Inspired by This Poem

Miranda Lambert's "Bluebird" was inspired by a poem, but the three songwriters spun their song to come to a very different conclusion. The song from Wildcard is a song of hope and optimism, while Charles Bukowski's poem called "Bluebird" is a dark story of creative captivity.

Lambert says co-writer Luke Dick brought the idea to the write during an album listening event in Nashville last fall. At the time, she didn't say much more about Bukowski's poem, but the well-known piece of work is easy to find with a Google. The poet writes of hiding his inner-bluebird — a metaphor for either his creative soul or the optimism a man's man often tries to hide if he's growing up in Depression-era America, as Bukowski did.

It may also represent vulnerability. Bukowski published the poem in 1992 and died in 1994.

Lambert's verses and chorus are conversely bright and cheerful by comparison. "If the house just keeps on winning / I got a wildcard up my sleeve / If love keeps giving me lemons / I just mix them in my drink / If the whole wide world stops singing and all the stars go dark / I keep a light on in my soul / I keep a bluebird in my heart," she sings. Dick and Natalie Hemby helped write the song.

Listen to Charles Bukowski's "Bluebird":

In January, Lambert and her co-writing team talked to Billboard about "Bluebird," with Hemby revealing that Lambert was just three days married when the trio sat down to write. It was a secret she walked in with, but spilled quickly.

With love on her mind, she added and tweaked lyrics that best represented her life at that time, last January. The "wildcard" lyric would eventually inspire her album title. That line was inspired by a lyric from her song "Easy From Now On," from the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend album.

Talking to Taste of Country in November, Lambert remarked that "Bluebird" is the song most of her fans appreciate. "There hasn’t been like one, besides 'Bluebird,' that has been common," she said. "Everybody is all over the map, which I love because that’s the kind of record it is."

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