distant Figure
elsewhere and Other
high over the forest
upon the rock
Seer of predators, advance
Guard through firestorms
Voice behind the blizzard’s
veil of snow
Heard as stern or loving
depending on the Child
Get up, Bambi!
Healer through counsel
not so different than Mother
Future when mother is present
Present when mother is Past
You become him
savior begotten of Saviors
as he passes
into the grand Plural
Poet’s Notes:
This poem of course references the classic 1942 Disney film Bambi.
Also on my mind while writing this poem was a quote from President Dallin H. Oaks in the April 2017 session of General Conference: “It all begins with God the Father. While we know comparatively little about Him, what we know is decisive in understanding His supreme position, our relationship to Him, and His superintending role in the plan of salvation, the Creation, and all else that followed” (emphasis added).
Wheat & Tares 
It is disconcerting to have an apostle confess that he knows comparatively little about God.
Contrarily, I find it comforting to have an apostle honestly confess the he knows comparatively little about God. To me, an apostle, or anyone, claiming to know a lot about God would be disconcerting. I don’t believe that we mortal beings are capable of knowing or understanding much about God and for anyone to claim otherwise would be deceitful.
It’s not so disconcerting to me that an apostle would confess that he knows comparatively little about God, as it is disconcerting to see overlooked in his list of things that are decisively understood about God, the fact that He is male. Either that is important or or not, or perhaps it’s important not to notice it until it is important to take notice of it. Regardless of what logic one uses in one’s effort to understand God, I find it interesting that the maleness of God is so universally taken for granted.
Thank you each for your comments. Always interesting to see differing responses to the same quote. It was President Oaks’ quote which led me to the title of my poem. MDearest, your comment resonates with why I connected my poem to Oak’s comment. His quote admits something, even as it bangs the drum of the Father’s supremacy.
Like Bambi’s father, we have in the Mormon Elohim a being who is absent from significant parts of the narrative. Yet His prestige and authority are treated as a given from start to finish. God’s gender, at least as a narrative device, seems pretty well established to me from the New Testament Gospels on. Yet, especially if we step away from a literal reading, what do we really know about God the Father? So much comes from extrapolation or assumption.
The idea that we invent God in our own image I find a useful one, and try to monitor that in myself, how that might be growing or adjusting as experience changes me.I also see this develop in my now adult kids, and in their relationship with us as parents.I reflect on the kind of love that deeply wants to share all with them, but has to allow them to grow and develop at their own pace, to do otherwise would be a form of violent intrusion on their agency.