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

short straw

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

The short straw is the unlucky lot in a drawing of straws, assigning an undesirable task or fate to the drawer.

Detailed Definition
Short straw appears in poetry as a potent symbol of the unwanted portion and the burden of chance. In verse it represents the selection for sacrifice or hardship. Poets invoke the short straw to explore themes of unlucky assignment, the fairness of the random draw, and the human response to being chosen for the difficult path by the impartiality of lots.
Example
Example in poetry:
The short straw drawn from the fist appears in poems of unlucky and unavoidable assignment; Folk and modern verse use the unequal lot for the one who must accept the harder portion; “He drew the short straw and the night’s duty became his alone” illustrates impartial misfortune; Educational poetry shows the practice as the simplest form of fair selection; Poets keep the short straw when chance itself must choose the bearer of the burden.
Additional Notes
The short straw, drawn from the fist or the bundle, remains the simplest and most democratic emblem of the unlucky assignment. Poets who choose the image often wish to stage the moment when chance itself selects the bearer of the burden. Teachers may explore the ethics of the draw and the acceptance that follows. Related practices include the various forms of the unequal lot. The image works best when the outcome must be accepted as both fair and final.
Also Known As
chance draw luck of the draw fate's selection
Skip to main content