Bluebird in My Heart

For thousands of years, across hundreds of different cultures around the world, the bluebird has stood as a positive symbol representing  happiness, prosperity, and rebirth. Many cultures hold it to be sacred, including Korean legend which believes the bluebird to be the messenger of the Gods and overseer of Humans. This belief is further supported by early sailors who would tattoo bluebirds on their bodies after safe passage across 10,000 nautical miles.

  In the song above and the poem below,  the bluebird does not represent this traditional view of happiness. In the song, the bluebird has left town and the singer feels that his bluebird can only find happiness when it returns home.  

 In the  Bluebird poem below, the poet suspects he has suffocated or drenched in alcohol the happiness that he discovers is still inside him. Nevertheless, he holds on to the possibility of  personal happiness despite his attempts to conceal and destroy it.  He knows the bluebird inside him (his symbol of love) is yearning for that rebirth. Ultimately, true happiness is something we find in ourselves, not necessarily in our aviary friends.

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.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you? 

Charles Bukowski

  

  There is a Bluebird nightclub in Indiana. One of the sweetest singers with a voice like a bluebird, Iris DeMent, gave this interview called In Search of a Song. Listen to her sing.