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.

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

Breath-measured line

Meter
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 line whose metrical length is determined by the span of a relaxed inhalation or exhalation, prioritizing physiological rhythm.

Detailed Definition
Breath-measured line is a verse line whose length and cadence are determined by the poet’s respiratory cycle during composition or recitation, ensuring that phrasing aligns with natural inhalation and exhalation; this technique fosters a direct link between bodily presence and poetic utterance, emphasizing authenticity and performative energy.
Example
Example in poetry:
Olson’s “Projective Verse” defines the breath-measured line as unit of composition; In “The Kingfishers,” Olson aligns line length with breath duration; Robert Creeley’s short lines often reflect precise breath-measured phrasing; Alice Notley uses breath-measured lines to convey interior monologue; Nathaniel Mackey’s “Eroding Witness” employs breath-measured lines for ritual cadence.
Additional Notes
A term used by poets (particularly the Black Mountain School) for a poetic line where the rhythm and length are governed by the natural patterns of human breath; Prioritizes the acoustic and physiological realities of speech over traditional meter; Related to Projective Verse.
Also Known As
Measured-breath line Respiratory line Breath count verse Breath-based line
Skip to main content