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

Second nature

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

A habit or skill so ingrained it feels instinctive and effortless; describes behaviors acquired through repetition becoming automatic, requiring no conscious thought or deliberate effort.

Detailed Definition
Second nature means a habit, skill, response, or way of thinking that has become so familiar it feels automatic. In poetry, the idiom is useful for craft, prayer, labour, music, grief, manners, language, or survival instincts. It suggests that repeated practice can become embodied, almost as natural as breathing. A poet may use it to praise mastery or to show how social conditioning becomes invisible. The phrase helps students understand how form, rhythm, and memory can move from effort into instinct.
Example
Example in poetry:
A craft poem might say scanning metre becomes second nature after years of reading aloud; In a pastoral poem, kindness is second nature to the shepherd who shares his bread; The phrase means an action or habit so familiar it feels automatic; A poet can use it for skill or character.
Additional Notes
Second nature means a learned behaviour that has become effortless, as if it were innate. In poetry, it can describe craft, prayer, music, labour, manners, grief rituals, or survival skills. The phrase raises questions about nature and habit: repeated action can become part of identity. Students should compare it with force of habit. It pairs well with hands, instruments, tools, gestures, and knowledge carried in the body.
Also Known As
Habitus Like a duck to water
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