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 P

Potlatch Woman

Mythology
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

Potlatch Woman embodies the Northwest Coast Indigenous value of radical generosity, where status is affirmed through ceremonial gift-giving.

Detailed Definition
Potlatch Woman is not a standardized myth figure but may represent the spirit of the potlatch—ceremonial feasting and gift-giving central to Northwest Coast cultures. She embodies reciprocity, status, and community wealth. In poetry, Potlatch Woman symbolizes indigenous economics, cultural resistance (as potlatches were banned), and the power of generosity as social glue, often used to explore themes of abundance, obligation, and cultural revival.
Example
Example in poetry:
Potlatch Woman appears in Northwest Coast poetry as the generous host whose gifts redistribute wealth and honor; A verse describes Potlatch Woman weaving blankets that carry clan crests and debts; Poets use Potlatch Woman to critique capitalism: “She gives to receive respect, not profit”; In resistance poetry, her feast revives after Canada’s potlatch ban; Her generosity becomes a revolution in verse—abundant and communal.
Additional Notes
Potlatch Woman is not a standard mythological figure but may poetically reference women central to Northwest Coast potlatch ceremonies, where status, storytelling, and spirit encounters are affirmed—poets should instead reference specific beings like Dzonokwa or ceremonial roles (e.g., song leaders) to avoid inventing personas; the potlatch itself is a living institution, not a mythic setting.
Also Known As
Giving Woman
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