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

Audience Address

Performance
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

Direct speech from the performer to listeners. It makes the audience an acknowledged presence in the poem.

Detailed Definition
Audience address occurs when a poet speaks to listeners rather than presenting the poem as if no one were present. A performer may ask questions, invite replies, give instructions, or use eye contact and gesture to establish contact. This technique can make a reading feel conversational, confrontational, intimate, or communal. It is central to many spoken-word, slam, and live dramatic poetry practices.
Example
Example in poetry:
A performer looks directly at the listeners and says, “You have seen this street before,” making the audience part of the poem’s world; While reading a climate poem, the poet asks the audience, “What will you save?” and pauses for the question to resonate; In a dramatic monologue, the speaker addresses an imagined “you,” and the performer uses eye contact to make the audience feel addressed; A slam poet opens with “Listen,” using a direct command to establish an immediate connection with the room
Additional Notes
Audience address breaks the boundary between performer and listeners through direct pronouns, eye contact, questions, commands, or acknowledgement of the room. “You” may invite intimacy, challenge complacency, or create discomfort, so its purpose should be clear. Compare apostrophe, where the speaker addresses an absent person, object, or idea. Study hint: identify who “you” is and pause after key questions to allow a response.
Also Known As
Direct Address Audience Engagement
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