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

Aspen

Flora
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 slender deciduous tree with round leaves that tremble in the slightest breeze, creating a distinctive rustling sound.

Detailed Definition
The aspen's quaking leaves have made it a symbol of fear, sensitivity, and responsiveness in poetry. According to legend, the aspen trembled at the Crucifixion and has shivered ever since. Poets use its constant motion to represent nervousness, gossip, or heightened awareness. In American poetry, aspen groves with their white bark and golden autumn color evoke wilderness beauty, while the tree's communal root systems suggest hidden connections and shared identity beneath individual appearances.
Example
Example in poetry:
The trembling aspen leaves, responsive to the slightest breeze, symbolize sensitivity, nervousness, or fearfulness in poetry; Autumn aspens with their golden foliage create spectacular imagery in American Western and mountain poetry; The distinctive sound of rustling aspen leaves—"quaking" or "whispering"—provides auditory imagery for nature poems; In Native American-influenced poetry, aspen groves connected by root systems represent community and interconnection; The aspen's white bark marked with dark scars offers visual contrasts and metaphors for bearing witness or memory; Legend says aspens tremble because their wood formed Christ's cross, giving them symbolic weight in religious poetry
Additional Notes
Aspen is famed for its trembling leaves, which shimmer and rustle at the slightest breeze. This movement has made it a poetic emblem of anxiety, sensitivity, or suppressed emotion. In folklore it is linked with transformation and haunting. Its pale bark and quivering canopy suit atmospheric descriptions of light, wind, and unease.
Also Known As
Quaking Aspen Trembling Aspen Poplar
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