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

singlestick

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

Singlestick is a form of fencing or combat with a wooden stick, used for training or sport.

Detailed Definition
Singlestick appears in poetry as a practical emblem of the wooden blade and the disciplined stroke. In historical verse it represents the training for the sword. Poets invoke the singlestick to illustrate themes of the practice bout, the bruised arm, and the cultural bridge between the stick and the steel in the poetry of martial skill.
Example
Example in poetry:
Singlestick’s wooden blade and measured strokes appear in poems of practical and training combat; Historical verse arms the fighter with the light and lively weapon of the practice yard; “He fought with the singlestick until the arm itself learned the grammar of the edge” illustrates disciplined repetition; Educational examples present the sport as the bridge between cudgel and sword; Poets keep singlestick when the contest must feel both serious and still provisional.
Additional Notes
Singlestick, the wooden training weapon, preserves the memory of combat that is both practical and still provisional. Poets who choose it often wish to emphasize the practice yard rather than the formal duel. Teachers may contrast singlestick with the edged sword or the heavier quarterstaff. Related stick-fighting forms include cudgeling and the general language of the wooden blade. The image works best when the contest must feel serious yet still governed by the rules of the salle.
Also Known As
single-stick
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