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 C

Craftsmanship

Art
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

The skill, care, and technical knowledge involved in making art. In poetry, it refers to deliberate choices in language, form, sound, and revision.

Detailed Definition
Craftsmanship in poetry is the attentive practice of shaping a poem through diction, rhythm, syntax, imagery, structure, and revision. It does not require work to be rigid or impersonal; rather, it recognizes that spontaneity often becomes effective through careful making. A discussion of craftsmanship may consider how a poet handles line breaks, recurring sounds, transitions, and endings, or how technical control supports emotional and intellectual complexity.
Example
Example in poetry:
The precise sound patterns and controlled imagery of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Pied Beauty” demonstrate craftsmanship in poetic making; A poet shows craftsmanship by revising a description of a sculpture until each verb conveys its texture and weight; In a poem on a Japanese print, carefully chosen line breaks can slow the reader’s gaze in the same way the print invites close viewing; A successful ekphrastic poem may use consistent meter and subtle rhyme so its formal design matches the balance of the artwork
Additional Notes
Craftsmanship emphasizes that poems are made as well as inspired. It includes control of diction, lineation, meter, sound, imagery, punctuation, and revision. When discussing craftsmanship, point to specific choices and their effects rather than simply calling a poem polished or skillful.
Also Known As
Artisanship Workmanship Craft
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