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 M

Marasmus

Medical Terms
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 severe form of malnutrition marked by extreme wasting of the body. In poetry it often symbolises utter decline, poverty, or the slow extinguishing of life.

Detailed Definition
Marasmus is a condition of extreme malnutrition in which the body wastes away due to prolonged lack of nutrients. Historically it was associated with famine, poverty, or chronic illness, especially among children and the elderly. The visible thinning of the body made the disease a stark symbol of deprivation. In literary contexts poets sometimes invoke marasmus to emphasise the fragility of life under harsh conditions, portraying physical wasting as a metaphor for social neglect or the draining of vitality from individuals and communities.
Example
Example in poetry:
The child wasted away from severe marasmus; Poets use marasmus to describe extreme neglect; The famine resulted in cases of marasmus in the village; He wrote of the marasmus of the dying empire; Marasmus is a form of severe malnutrition; The verse depicted the skeletal frame of marasmus.
Additional Notes
Marasmus is a severe form of malnutrition causing extreme wasting. In poetry it symbolises profound decline or deprivation. Writers may use the term metaphorically to describe societies drained of vitality or individuals weakened by long hardship. The stark image of physical wasting emphasises themes of poverty, neglect, and endurance.
Also Known As
Severe Wasting Infantile Marasmus
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