Bold Beginnings

Mormon Channel’s Earthly Father, Heavenly Father may not be a poem adapted to film, but it is the first poem I’ve ever seen that got its start as film.  Before youtube, it was never recited or printed on a page, nor did it belong to a feature-length movie.  Pretty one-of-a-kind, don’t you think?

The poem describes a typical day in a loving family’s home.  It is an allegory for the care and attention that God gives to us.  The sound and rhythm of the poem center on the number three, a common symbol for deity.  For example:

·       Iambic trimeter:

I do it all for them.

I work that they may grow.

·      Alliteration of three words across three sentences:

I come home.  Two-second hugs.  Now I’m a horse.

·      Repetition of the same clause three times throughout the poem:

…not thinking once how it all came to be…

…They see so little of how it all came to be…

…I now stand very aware of how it all came to be.

Also note the rhyme near the end of the poem, which makes the phrase that follows (the theme of the entire poem) stand out even more:

I am also a son.  And while I may not understand all that he does

For me, I do know that all that I am and all that I have is because

He’s a father to me.