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 B

Besom

Witchcraft
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 witch’s broom used for cleansing and ritual travel. It often symbolizes domestic magic and freedom.

Detailed Definition
A besom is a traditional broom, commonly made from natural branches, used to sweep away unwanted influences or mark sacred space. Poets may use it to merge household labor with enchantment: ashes, dust, herbs, and thresholds become magical materials. Its association with flight also gives the besom a double image, grounded in the hearth yet capable of carrying the imagination beyond social limits.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The besom leans by the door, bristles holding last autumn’s leaves” grounds a magical poem in domestic imagery; “She rides no besom, only the wind of her own refusal” revises the familiar witch stereotype; A poet could use a besom as a symbol of cleansing in “I sweep the old names from the threshold with a besom”; “At dusk, the besom’s straw whispers across the floorboards” uses sound to make the object vivid
Additional Notes
A besom is a broom, traditionally made from tied twigs, and in witchcraft imagery it may evoke threshold-crossing, household labour, cleansing, protection, or imagined flight. Its ordinary domestic function can make supernatural associations more striking. Compare broomstick, cauldron, and hearth, while remembering that symbolism depends on context. Study hint: decide whether the besom is a practical tool, an emblem of power, or both, then show it in use.
Also Known As
Broom Witch’s Broom
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