FINGERPRINTING THE WIND
32 Haikus for Sophie Louise
Robert Whiteley
Copyright © Robert Whiteley 2011
Published by Poet’s Pulpit Press
at Smashwords
copyright ©Robert Whiteley 2011
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Whiteley, Robert, 1972
Fingerprinting the Wind: 32 Haikus for Sophie Louise / Robert Whiteley
ISBN: 978-0-9736817-4-1
1. Poetry, Canadian (English) 1. Title
Please visit publisher @ www.poetspulpit.com
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
for my family
Preface
Written over the course of a single day, September 21, 2007,
the dichotomy behind the origins of all 32 haikus, belie my
philosophy that poetry need not be explained, merely enjoyed.
Each haiku in this book represents a minute in the brief life
of my beautiful darling daughter
Born a year earlier, September 21, 2006, at 2:59 pm
in Burlington, Ontario, she was four months premature and
weighed only fourteen ounces.
There was nothing anyone could do to save her.
Her heart stopped beating thirty-two minutes later
at 3:31 pm.
She was going to be our first child.
We called her Sophie Louise.
Robert Whiteley
Oakville, Ontario
I
i call you autumn
and you can call me daddy
but not today, love
II
one minute after
midnight: a child weeping
not mine, nevermind
III
two-fifty-nine:
overcast skies. calm lake
snapshot horrific
IV
barely audible
i have seen it all before
five years earlier