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 ...

Co-writer Luke Dick had come into a writing session with a Bukowski poem about a bluebird as a captive creative force on his mind. But they and the third writer, Natalie Hemby, didn’t lean on ...

The poem hones in on the figure of the bluebird as a metaphor for a creative fire that never quite goes out, no matter how much self-doubt, whiskey and cigarette smoke Bukowski dumps on its head.

The song title arrived via a Charles Bukowski confessional poem about hidden vulnerability, where the hard-living author pours whiskey on the sweet bluebird he keeps away from public view.

Bukowski wrote in his poem, the bluebird: “There’s a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I’m too tough for him, I say, stay in there, I’m not going to let anybody see you.