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 D

Destemming

Viniculture
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

Destemming is the removal of grape stems from the berries before fermentation, reducing bitter tannins and herbaceousness.

Detailed Definition
Destemming’s poetic nuance is refinement through subtraction—the stems can add green, astringent notes, so their removal is a choice for elegance. Poets use destemming to discuss curating one’s thoughts, cutting away the extraneous to focus on the essential. It is a deliberate act of separation, distinguishing between what is structurally needed and what is dross. In verses about minimalist aesthetics or the pruning of a manuscript, destemming serves as a metaphor for the poet’s critical eye, leaving only the plump berries of meaning.
Example
Example in poetry:
Destemming|"Destemming is the removal of the grape's stems, a step that reduces bitterness and herbaceousness."; "The poet sees destemming as a metaphor for editing, the process of removing the extraneous to reveal the essential."; "Destemming is a choice, a decision about the wine's character, much like a poet's choice of words."; "The poet uses destemming to discuss the refinement of art, the careful curation of what is included and what is left out."; "Destemming is a mechanical act with a profound impact, a lesson in how small changes can have big effects."; "The poet compares the destemmer's work to the poet's revision, both are acts of subtraction that lead to greater clarity."
Additional Notes
Destemming is the removal of grape stems before fermentation, a process that reduces the risk of bitter tannins and herbaceous flavors. This act of careful selection is a powerful metaphor for editing, for the poet's work of cutting away the extraneous to allow the essential to shine. By removing the stems, the winemaker ensures that the wine is more elegant and less astringent, a lesson in the importance of refinement and restraint. Students should note that some winemakers choose to include whole clusters, introducing a more rustic, structured style that poets can use to explore the aesthetic of wildness versus cultivation. Related terms include crushing and maceration.
Also Known As
Stemming
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