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

Drekavac

Folklore
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 terrifying childlike creature from South Slavic folklore known for its piercing cry.

Detailed Definition
Drekavac is a night creature of South Slavic belief whose name is related to screaming or shrieking. Accounts vary: it may be the restless spirit of an unbaptized child, a small animal-like monster, or a being that cries from graveyards, fields, and village edges. Its defining feature is often its unbearable voice rather than a stable appearance. In poetry, the Drekavac can embody grief that refuses silence, the return of neglected dead, or a cry that crosses the boundary between infancy, haunting, and communal memory.
Example
Example in poetry:
A horror poem may hear the drekavac crying from a graveyard or forest after midnight; “Drekavac” can embody the unsettling voice of grief that refuses to disappear; A poet might use the drekavac’s shriek as a repeated sound image that breaks the silence of a village; Reimagining the drekavac as a lonely child can turn a monster figure into a meditation on mourning.
Additional Notes
The drekavac is a frightening childlike creature in South Slavic folklore, famous for its piercing, unnatural cry. Accounts differ, but it is often associated with the restless dead or with places outside the safety of the village. In verse, its cry can represent grief, guilt, warning, or unresolved memory. It belongs to the wider tradition of bogey figures and revenant-like night creatures.
Also Known As
Screamer
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