What is “Redbird Winter” about?
"Redbird Winter" is a grief song built on a belief the narrator's grandmother passed down: when a cardinal comes to visit, someone you lost is checking in. On a snowy January morning he watches a redbird in the cedar and remembers a woman who died in April, promising to return as something red among the trees. The bridge offers the idea that grief is "love with nowhere left to go." Fourteenth on The Last Porch Light, it begins the album's closing run of songs about loss.
Redbird Winter lyrics
There's a cardinal in the cedar outside my window
Red as a stoplight against the January gray
Grandma used to say when cardinals come to visit
It means somebody you lost is checking in today
I pour my coffee and I watch him for a while
He tilts his head like he's got something on his mind
And the snow keeps falling soft as a secret
And the whole world feels like it stopped in time
Redbird winter, sitting on the fence line
Singing something I almost understand
Like a letter written in a language
That my heart knows but my head can't read
Redbird winter, stay a little longer
I ain't ready for you to fly away
There's so much I never got to tell her
And I swear I see her in you today
She died in April when the dogwoods were in bloom
I held her hand and she was lighter than a leaf
She said don't be sad, I'll come around and visit
Just look for something red among the trees
I didn't believe it then, I was too full of grief
To think the dead could come as birds
But this morning with the snow and the cardinal singing
I believe in every one of her words
Redbird winter, sitting on the fence line
Singing something I almost understand
Like a letter written in a language
That my heart knows but my head can't read
Redbird winter, stay a little longer
I ain't ready for you to fly away
There's so much I never got to tell her
And I swear I see her in you today
And maybe grief is just love with nowhere left to go
So it looks for red feathers in the snow
And maybe that's enough
Maybe that's the whole damn point
That love don't end, it just changes shape
And lands on a branch outside your window
On the coldest day
Redbird winter, sitting on the fence line
Singing something I finally understand
She's right here, she never really left me
She just traded her apron for a pair of wings
Redbird winter
I'll leave the window cracked for you
I'll leave the window cracked for you
Stay a little longer