Joanna Wiebe

Our son is sleeping now,
arms flung out,
fluttering smiles.

Did he know, as he made up his mind,
pulling from a grab-bag of genes
his red-gold hair, steel-blue eyes,
a mobile mouth, a fringe of toes;

Did he know about the wars and rumors of wars?
microwaves, plutonium, dirty rivers, sterile earth,
careless politicians?

(the list is endless, I could go on and on.)

I will tell him our family histories;
his great-grandfather’s trek through no-man’s land,
escaping white and red fire,
crossing the ocean,
stepping onto the train with his samovar, his wife, his children,

hope in their eyes.

How secure my mother felt
in the backseat of the family Buick,
crossing the frozen river,
singing,
driving home to Blaine lake, Saskatchewan, Canada
after church!

Another legend for our son:
his father’s rush to freedom,

dashing over the beach with a coyote,
government helicopters writing light on the sand,
running for three days, without food, to Los Angeles.

How happy he was to live in a house with drawn shades,
to work,
to learn,
to try to dream.

My son uncurls his hand,
a starfish beached on my breast.

These family histories impel me;
I shall begin teaching him our languages.

Joanna Wiebe, 1979

On our trip to Wichita last month, my mother, Katie Funk Wiebe, said I should look up the Center for Mennonite Writing web site, sponsored by the Goshen College English Department. When I got back home, I hunted for it unsuccessfully. Then tonight, while visiting Rhoda Janzen’s Facebook page, I saw that she had included the link, which I followed. Apparently, the site is brand new, with a sleek design and writing by Mennonite creative types! I enjoyed dipping into its many features, from the CMW Journal of the best in Mennonite fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and criticism — to blogs, discussions, links, news and announcements of interest to Mennonite writers.

Site Editor Ann Hostetler and her team have put together a useful resource which I plan on exploring more deeply.