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

Distraction

Psychology
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

Diversion of attention from a primary focus, often leading to scattered awareness.

Detailed Definition
Poetic distraction emerges through digression, meandering imagery, and interrupted syntax. Poets use it to mimic restlessness, information overload, or evasion from painful truths. It can signal modern ennui or a playful refusal of linearity. Distraction also invites serendipity—unexpected connections—making it a creative force, as in stream-of-consciousness or associative verse that mirrors the wandering mind.
Example
Example in poetry:
Distraction in Thomas Bailey Aldrich's "At a Reading" shows beauty distracting from intellectual pursuits; James Schuyler's "Distraction: An Ode" meditates on everyday distractions from existential questions; Henry Vaughan's "Distraction" speaks of being "crumble dust"; Heather June Gibbons' "Her Mouth As Souvenir" is a study of distraction and mediated reality; The poem "Effort for distraction" describes distraction growing ferocious; A haiku by Wintz captures a moment of distraction with physical consequences.
Additional Notes
Distraction emerges in poetry through digression, meandering imagery, and interrupted syntax, mimicking restlessness, information overload, or evasion from painful truths. It can signal modern ennui or a playful refusal of linearity. In teaching, distinguish distraction from dissociation: distraction is diversion of attention, while dissociation is a more severe disruption of consciousness. Distraction also invites serendipity—unexpected connections—making it a creative force, as in stream-of-consciousness or associative verse. Students should examine how poets use parentheticals, asides, or abrupt shifts to mirror scattered awareness.
Also Known As
Unfocus diversion interruption scattering attention shift Red herring
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