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

alias

Latin Phrases
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

Otherwise; at another time, used to indicate an alternative name or identity.

Detailed Definition
Alias means "otherwise" or "at another time" and commonly indicates an assumed name or alternative identity. In poetry, this term captures the multiplicity of self, the performance of identity, and the gap between public persona and private truth. Poets employ alias when exploring pseudonymity, disguise, or the various roles one inhabits across contexts. The word suggests both deception and necessity, the strategic adoption of names that protect, reveal, or reimagine the self. It appears in poems about authorship, gender, exile, and reinvention, where speakers acknowledge that identity is plural, constructed, and contingent rather than singular and essential.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet writing under pseudonym might explore the gap between legal name and "alias" adopted for publication; Contemporary verse about identity uses "alias" to capture multiplicity of self across contexts; A poem about witness protection might describe living "under alias, becoming someone else while remaining myself"; Poets exploring gender or cultural code-switching employ "alias" to name performed identities; A sequence might give the speaker different names in different sections, each an "alias" revealing different facets; Metapoetic verse uses "alias" when discussing how poets create personae: "Not me but my alias speaks here, the constructed I of the poem"
Additional Notes
Alias indicates multiplicity of identity, the gap between legal name and alternative designations. Originally meaning "at another time" or "otherwise," it evolved to mean "also known as." Poets use alias when exploring pseudonymity, pen names, married/maiden names, chosen names versus birth names—all situations where identity is plural rather than singular. Related to questions about authenticity, performance, and strategic self-presentation. George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin), and countless other writers adopted aliases, raising questions about why alternative names became necessary. The phrase is particularly relevant for poets exploring gender, migration, exile, or any context where official identity doesn't capture lived experience. Useful for understanding how naming relates to power and self-determination.
Also Known As
otherwise called otherwise known as a.k.a.
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