What is the theme in My Father's Song by Simon J. Ortiz?

Teaching is another theme in the poem. The relationship between parents and children is also one between teachers and students. Parents teach their children through example and explanation about the world and themselves. Ortiz describes one such experience, in which his father teaches him compassion for all living things by moving vulnerable newborn mice to a safer place. By first placing the mice in his son's hands, the father bonds the animals to his child. Significantly, it's the tactile sensation that the speaker remembers and not the words that his father says.