Soft Landings Finale

By Mel Senator

Senator is back with the third in his trilogy of seaside poetry. Soft Landings Finale frames a panorama of the natural world that is both sweeping and yet intensely personal in scope. Senators deft pen draws creatures from their nesting places and follows them into their magnificent surroundings. We dive with cormorants and flit with minnows. We feel what it is like to be a duck bobbing in the marsh or a seal watching a ship. And yet this third volume is a departure from the first two Soft Landings books. Although still spending time among the gulls, waves, and clouds, here Senator takes a look inward, to the changing tides and sunny reflections of his own psyche, of growing older and sometimes wiser, sometimes not. Senators eye misses nothing and stares unblinking at the twilight of our days while still finding humor in everything he encounters, and comfort in loves old and new. These poems are to be savored in rich droplets on your tongue, and kept close to your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491748138

Mel Senator

Mel Senator is the author of Catskill Summers (2000), Reflections in Haiku (2006), Soft Landings in Poetry (2009) and Soft Landings in Poetry 2 (2011). He is an adjunct professor of American history and teacher education. Mr. Senator and his wife, Shelly, enjoy hiking and biking the shores and marshes along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They spend summers at their home on Cape Cod near the National Seashore.

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Copyright © 2014 Mel Senator.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-4812-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-4813-8 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 10/15/2014

Contents

first memory

inaction again

pacific winter in late afternoon

the dead on vacation

the bicycle as healer

@butterfly beach in wind

the surfers

uncertainties

to prozac

todays noise

windblown

anticipation

@gaviota beach approach

the wonder of it

the bay at low tide

the fishing boat dream baby

the dear one

the plank bridge at nauset marsh

the birthday message

6 snippets

heavy weather

incoming tide

morning frost afternoon sun

through the diamond fence

the sea alive

mind meanderings on a beach

time wonders

nuked

mist

interlude by a pond

about dad

of shorebirds & small creatures

19 lives

the hunt at low tide

wind music

of seals a dune & a surfer

unhelpful thinking seizes the am

revisiting the dream baby

what happened did i say that

autumn ride circa 77

feeling the day

its here near

peeps at the harbor

4 fishing boats

poem abc

haze on a z pac

possibilities

reflection in a mirror

a perfect moment

persona non grata

mysterious sea birds

the blues

winter wind & sun

danger at low tide

imagining at the beach

death rides faster

ft hill stroll

searches & sightings

nymph lake hike

silence interrupted

changes

looking back

hendrys beach p m

Also by Mel Senator

Catskill Summers

Reflections in Haiku

Soft Landings in Poetry

Soft Landings in Poetry 2

Acknowledgements

To Susan Senator, thank you for reading the manuscript, for the depth of criticism and for your kind, thoughtful, consistent encouragement. I appreciate your special interest in the book and the discussions we had about its content, meaning. Thank you for writing