A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter A

A Shot In The Dark

Idiomatic Phrase
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A risky conjecture or attempt made with minimal information; in poetry, this phrase often conveys a sense of desperation or precarious hope, highlighting the tension between action and uncertainty.

Detailed Definition
The phrase imagines a projectile launched into darkness without a visible target. In poetry, it can describe a confession, prediction, prayer, or first draft offered without certainty of reception. The darkness creates vulnerability, but also possibility: even an unseeing shot may strike something, revealing that hope often begins before knowledge becomes available.
Example
Example in poetry:
The speaker takes “a shot in the dark” by sending a hopeful letter without knowing whether it will arrive; “My guess was a shot in the dark, but dawn answered”; The phrase can describe a risky attempt made with little evidence or guidance; “I cast a shot in the dark toward the silent stars.”
Additional Notes
“A shot in the dark” is a guess or attempt made with little evidence or guidance. It can describe an answer, prediction, or action taken under uncertainty, and it does not necessarily imply carelessness. Related terms include speculation, a stab in the dark, and trial and error. Example: I took a shot in the dark and guessed that the missing key was in the car.
Also Known As
A Wild Guess A Blind Guess
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