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 Q

quarterstaff

Games
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

Quarterstaff is a long wooden staff used as a weapon in combat or sport, held with both hands.

Detailed Definition
Quarterstaff enters poetry as a sturdy emblem of the commoner's weapon and the sweeping arc of defense. In folk and historical literature it symbolizes the rural fighter. Poets use the staff and the wards to explore themes of the length of reach, the grounded stance, and the traditional art of the staff that has armed the heroes of ballad and romance.
Example
Example in poetry:
The quarterstaff’s long reach and sweeping defense appear in poems of rustic and practical combat; Folk and historical verse arm the common fighter with the solid ash of the countryside; “He stood with the quarterstaff and the road was closed to all comers” illustrates grounded strength; Educational poetry shows the weapon as the training tool and the equalizer; Poets keep the quarterstaff when the contest must feel both humble and formidable.
Additional Notes
The quarterstaff’s long reach and sweeping defense made it the practical weapon of the common fighter and the training yard. Poets who choose it often wish to emphasize grounded strength and the refusal of the edged or pointed blade. Classroom discussion can usefully contrast the quarterstaff with the sword or the cudgel. Related stick weapons include the singlestick and the general language of the staff. The image is effective when the contest must feel both humble and formidable.
Also Known As
Staff of the Quarter Longstaff Walking Stick
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