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 H

Hold the fort

Idiomatic Phrase
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

An idiomatic phrase meaning to maintain responsibilities temporarily during another's absence; military-origin metaphor used in poetry to convey stewardship, loyalty, or interim duty through fortified position imagery.

Detailed Definition
Hold the fort means to maintain responsibility, defend a position, or keep things functioning while others are absent. In poetry, it can describe domestic labour, wartime waiting, political loyalty, friendship, caregiving, or emotional steadiness. The military image turns everyday responsibility into defence against disorder. A mother, partner, worker, or friend may “hold the fort” quietly while larger dramas unfold elsewhere. The idiom is useful for honouring unspectacular endurance and for questioning why certain people are expected to remain behind.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a wartime poem, the grandmother holds the fort while the young men march away; A comic poet might make a cat hold the fort while the household goes shopping; The phrase hold the fort suggests keeping things safe and steady during someone else's absence; In domestic verse, to hold the fort can become an image of quiet courage.
Additional Notes
Hold the fort means maintain a position or keep things running while others are absent. Historically it suggests military defence, but in modern use it often applies to homes, offices, classrooms, or families. In poetry, it can show loyalty, waiting, domestic duty, or wartime endurance. The phrase implies temporary responsibility under pressure. It pairs well with thresholds, hearths, empty chairs, guarded rooms, and the quiet heroism of staying.
Also Known As
maintain position
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