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.

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

Ace in the hole

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 secret advantage or resource kept in reserve until the crucial moment; a trump card held back for strategic use.

Detailed Definition
Derived from poker, where an ace dealt face-down offers hidden advantage, this idiom conveys strategic reserve and concealed power. In poetry, it functions as a metaphor for hidden strength, private knowledge, or the moment of revelation that alters a narrative's course. Poets use it to build suspense, explore themes of deception, or celebrate the resourcefulness of the marginalized who retain unseen power. Its gambling origins lend connotations of risk and chance, making it effective in poems about fate, survival, or competitive struggle. The phrase connects everyday experience to deeper questions of agency, secrecy, and the timing of decisive action.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a poker-derived poem about survival, the speaker's ace in the hole is the knowledge that they have endured worse — a private resource the visible situation does not reveal; Langston Hughes's blues-inflected poems often carry an ace in the hole: a note of irony or resilience hidden beneath the surface complaint that transforms despair into something that endures; A wartime poem might describe hope itself as the soldier's ace in the hole — the image of home, held in reserve against the worst days; The phrase suits narrative poems where the speaker appears defeated until the final stanza reveals the resource they have been holding back, reversing the apparent outcome; A love poem might describe a secret feeling, long unexpressed, as an ace in the hole — the declaration saved for the moment when it could change everything; In political verse, grassroots organization becomes the movement's ace in the hole: invisible to those who measure power only in money and position, but decisive when finally played
Additional Notes
This phrase comes from gambling and card-playing, so it carries a sense of secrecy, timing, and strategic advantage. In poetry, an “ace in the hole” might be a hidden memory, a secret ally, a final truth, or a last reserve of courage. It works particularly well in dramatic monologues where the speaker reveals power only at the end.
Also Known As
Hidden ace Trump card Ace up one’s sleeve
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