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 K

Knock on wood

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

A superstitious gesture to avoid tempting fate after expressing hope or good fortune.

Detailed Definition
This folk ritual, from touching wooden charms, seeks to ward off jinxes. In poetry, it often appears in reflective or anxious verse to acknowledge luck’s fragility. Poets use it to explore human vulnerability, the tension between hope and fear, or cultural remnants of animism in modern life. Its tactile ritual grounds abstract dread in physical action, making it a poignant device in lyrics about parenthood, recovery, or any moment where happiness feels too precious to voice without protection.
Example
Example in poetry:
Superstitious hope: “Knock on wood—three years sober, may it hold through holidays”; Parental fear: “Knock on wood, she lands safely—flight turbulence scares me still”; Cultural habit: “Say ‘I’m healthy,’ knock on wood—old-country ritual, comfort in gesture”; Irony: “Knock on wood my Wi-Fi stays strong—modern prayer to fickle gods.”
Additional Notes
This folk ritual, from touching wooden charms, seeks to ward off jinxes. In poetry, it appears in reflective or anxious verse to acknowledge luck’s fragility. Its tactile ritual grounds abstract dread in physical action. Students should note its cross-cultural presence (e.g., “touch wood” in UK). Related phrases include “knock on wood” and “fingers crossed.” In parental poetry, it protects children’s health; in recovery verse, it guards sobriety. Avoid superstitious overtones—frame as cultural habit or emotional coping: “Say ‘I’m healthy,’ knock on wood—old-country ritual, comfort in gesture.”
Also Known As
Touch wood
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