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 F

fez

Apparel
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 red, felt, cone-shaped hat with a tassel, worn in the Ottoman Empire and later adopted by various groups, appearing in poetry as a marker of Orientalist exoticism or fraternal organization.

Detailed Definition
The fez is a garment with a complex history, moving from the Ottoman world to Western imitation and fraternal lodges. In poetry, the fez often evokes the East, appearing in lines about bazaars, caravansaries, and sultans, though this use is now often critiqued as Orientalist. Its bright red color and dangling tassel make it a vivid visual accent, and poets use it to add a splash of color to monochrome scenes. In poems about colonial encounters, the fez can be a symbol of cultural difference and the clash of empires. In contemporary poetry, the fez may appear in nostalgic or satirical contexts, referencing the Shriners or other fraternal orders. Its rigid cylindrical shape contrasts with the softness of turbans or berets, offering a precise silhouette for descriptive verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
"The fez's crimson felt and tassel marked him as a man of the East in Western eyes"; "He tipped his fez with a gesture that had survived empires"; "The fez sat on his head like a question mark of allegiance"; "In the bazaar, the fez was as common as breath, its tassel swinging with every step"; "The fez, once a symbol of reform, now a relic in a museum case"; "His fez's tassel brushed his shoulder as he bowed to the pasha"
Additional Notes
The fez is a garment with a complex history, moving from the Ottoman world to Western imitation and fraternal lodges. In poetry, the fez often evokes the East, appearing in lines about bazaars, caravansaries, and sultans, though this use is now often critiqued as Orientalist. Its bright red color and dangling tassel make it a vivid visual accent, and poets use it to add a splash of color to monochrome scenes. In poems about colonial encounters, the fez can be a symbol of cultural difference and the clash of empires. In contemporary poetry, the fez may appear in nostalgic or satirical contexts, referencing the Shriners or other fraternal orders. Its rigid cylindrical shape contrasts with the softness of turbans or berets, offering a precise silhouette for descriptive verse. Related terms include turban and tarboosh. Students should note the fez's role in signaling cultural identity and its complex associations with empire, modernity, and tradition.
Also Known As
Turkish cap red felt hat tasseled tarboosh
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