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

Simulacrum

Philosophy
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 simulacrum is a copy without an original, or a representation that has replaced reality. It is a false image that has become more real than the real thing.

Detailed Definition
Baudrillard's theory of simulation. In poetry, it appears as a theme of hyperreality, where images and signs dominate our experience. Poets might write about copies, reproductions, or media-saturated worlds. This concept challenges poetry to find the authentic in a world of copies. It raises questions about artistic originality and truth in a postmodern context, where the distinction between real and image has collapsed.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem that describes a celebrity or media icon as more real than a real person is engaging with the simulacrum; The "Disneyland" of a poem is a simulacrum, a copy of an imaginary original; A poem about the "West" as a myth, rather than a place, is about a simulacrum; The social media presence in a contemporary poem is often a simulacrum, an image that has replaced reality.
Additional Notes
Simulacrum is a central concept in Jean Baudrillard's postmodern theory of simulation. It is a copy without an original, or a representation that has become more real than the reality it claims to represent. In a world of simulation, signs and images proliferate endlessly, creating a "hyperreality" where the distinction between the real and the imaginary collapses. In poetry, the simulacrum appears as a theme of media saturation and the loss of authenticity. A poet might write about a celebrity, a theme park, or a political image that has become a copy of a copy, detached from any original. This concept challenges poetry to find a new way of speaking truth in a world where images have replaced reality.
Also Known As
Simulation Hyperreality Copy without an original
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