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

Avocet

Birds
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 wading bird with long, upcurved bill and striking black-and-white plumage.

Detailed Definition
The avocet’s elegant form and rarity in certain regions make it a symbol of grace, resilience, and environmental fragility in poetry. Its distinctive silhouette often evokes wetland landscapes and the delicate balance of ecosystems. Poets use the avocet to reflect themes of adaptation, beauty in marginal spaces, and the quiet dignity of overlooked creatures, especially in ecopoetry that laments habitat loss.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Mary Oliver’s “Avocet,” the bird’s “slender upturned beak” becomes a metaphor for resilience in fragile wetland ecosystems; The avocet appears in British nature poetry as a symbol of conservation success after near-extinction; Poets use the avocet’s black-and-white plumage to evoke stark beauty amid marshland desolation; In ecopoetry, the avocet’s return to reclaimed salt pans signifies hope and ecological restoration; The avocet’s elegant stride through shallow water inspires imagery of grace under environmental pressure.
Additional Notes
The avocet is a striking wading bird with a distinctive upcurved bill and bold black-and-white plumage, often found in saline or brackish wetlands. In poetry, it symbolizes ecological fragility, resilience, and grace under pressure. Its dramatic recovery in the UK after near-extinction makes it a potent emblem in contemporary ecopoetry. Poets may contrast its elegance with industrial or agricultural encroachment, using its silhouette to evoke liminal spaces between land and water. Related terms include “wader,” “marsh bird,” and “conservation icon.” When writing about the avocet, consider its rarity, migratory patterns, and role as an indicator species for wetland health.
Also Known As
Pied Avocet Recurvirostra
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