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 S

Sandpiper

Birds
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 small shorebird that darts along beaches and mudflats on stilt-like legs.

Detailed Definition
Sandpipers symbolize transience, alertness, and the edge between land and sea in poetry. Their quick, nervous movements mirror human anxiety or the fleeting nature of moments. Often seen in flocks during migration, they evoke themes of collective journeying and vulnerability. Poets use sandpipers to explore impermanence, the beauty of marginal zones, and the delicate balance of life on shifting shores in an age of rising seas and habitat loss.
Example
Example in poetry:
In coastal poetry, the sandpiper’s quick, nervous movements along shorelines symbolize transience, alertness, and life on the edge; Poets use the spotted sandpiper’s teetering walk to evoke balance, fragility, and constant motion; As a migratory shorebird, the sandpiper appears in verse linking Arctic breeding grounds to tropical wintering sites; Ecopoets reference sandpipers to discuss habitat loss on mudflats and the impact of rising sea levels; The sandpiper’s high-pitched “peep” calls add acoustic detail to beach and estuary soundscapes; Its tendency to forage alone or in loose groups inspires metaphors for independence within shared landscapes.
Additional Notes
Sandpiper: A group of shorebirds (e.g., spotted sandpiper) known for teetering movements and coastal presence. Symbolize liminal zones (tidal edges), restlessness, and migratory tenacity. Their rapid steps and piping calls suit poems about transience, borders, or the delicate balance of intertidal life.
Also Known As
Spotted Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Peep (colloquial for small Calidris species)
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