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.

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 J

Johnny on the spot

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 describing someone reliably present, promptly available, or dependably responsive; situational-readiness metaphor used in poetry to convey attentiveness, timeliness, or steadfast presence through positional-proximity imagery emphasizing immediate accessibility.

Detailed Definition
Johnny on the spot means a person who is present, ready, and able to help at exactly the right moment. In poetry, the idiom can characterise reliability, comic punctuality, social usefulness, or providential arrival. It has an old-fashioned colloquial flavour, which may suit humorous verse, narrative poems, or character sketches. The phrase can praise practical goodness rather than heroic grandeur. A poet might also use it ironically if the helpful figure arrives too readily, meddles, or represents social expectation.
Example
Example in poetry:
A comic poem might praise the postman as Johnny on the spot when the love letter arrives just in time; In adventure verse, the guide is Johnny on the spot with rope, lantern, and map; The phrase means someone is ready and helpful at exactly the right moment; A poet can use it to create a brisk, cheerful character sketch.
Additional Notes
Johnny on the spot means someone ready, available, and prompt when needed. It has an old-fashioned, informal, often American flavour. In poetry, it can characterise reliability, comic helpfulness, opportunism, or social readiness. The phrase creates a stock figure, almost like a nickname in a ballad or comic song. Students should note that being on the spot may imply virtue, convenience, or suspicious eagerness depending on tone.
Also Known As
ready
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