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 I

impala

Fauna
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 impala is a medium-sized, slender African antelope with lyre-shaped horns and remarkable leaping ability, symbolizing agility, alertness, and the bright, abundant life of the plains.

Detailed Definition
The impala is the quintessential grazer of the savanna, its explosive jumps and coordinated herd movements making it a poetic image of vitality, grace, and mutual vigilance. Its glossy, reddish coat and black facial stripes give it a polished, almost decorative appearance. Poets use the impala to evoke the sun-drenched, grass-swaying expanses of East Africa, the constant tension between feeding and fleeing, and the synchronized rhythm of a community that lives by the split-second decision, representing the beauty of responsiveness and the joy of sheer, bounding motion.
Example
Example in poetry:
Marilyn Nelson's "Impala" opens with "ON BALLERINA LEGS THE DOMINANT MALE COMMANDS THE VISTA".; A poet might write, "she's as quick as they'll ever be".; The impala can symbolize agility and alertness.; Its leaping ability represents freedom.; The animal's role in the savanna ecosystem is noted.
Additional Notes
Marilyn Nelson's poem "Impala" famously opens with the image of the dominant male commanding the vista on "ballerina legs," capturing the animal's combination of elegance and alertness. The impala's remarkable leaping ability—it can jump up to ten feet high and cover thirty feet in a single bound—makes it a natural symbol for freedom, explosive energy, and the beauty of defying gravity. Its lyre-shaped horns and reddish coat add to its visual appeal, making it a favorite subject for African nature poetry. The impala's constant vigilance, its role as both prey and grazer, represents the tension between feeding and fleeing that characterizes life on the savanna. When writing, emphasize the impala's graceful, almost balletic movement and its perpetual state of alert readiness.
Also Known As
leaping antelope African jumper herd acrobat
Skip to main content