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

Put the brakes on

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

To slow down or halt progress or activity; vehicular metaphor describing application of brakes to reduce speed or stop movement, applied to decelerating initiatives or stopping actions.

Detailed Definition
Put the brakes on means to slow, restrain, halt, or limit action, emotion, spending, speech, or progress. In poetry, the idiom brings mechanical and vehicular imagery into human behaviour. It can describe caution in love, political delay, self-control, economic restraint, or an interruption to reckless momentum. A poet may use it wisely, where speed threatens danger, or critically, where necessary change is blocked. The phrase is useful for exploring control, hesitation, and the tension between movement and safety.
Example
Example in poetry:
A modern poem might show doubt putting the brakes on a young artist's bold plan; In a comic driving poem, the grandmother puts the brakes on every adventure before it leaves the lane; The phrase means to slow or stop something; A poet can use it for caution, fear, or restraint.
Additional Notes
Put the brakes on means slow, restrain, or stop a process. The vehicle image makes momentum central: something was moving and now must be checked. In poetry, it can apply to desire, anger, spending, reform, speech, or technological progress. Students should ask whether braking is prudent control or fearful obstruction. It pairs well with roads, wheels, skids, speed, and the danger of stopping too late.
Also Known As
slow down
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