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

skein

Archaic Terms
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 loosely coiled length of yarn or thread; a tangled or complex situation; a flock of wild geese in flight forming V-formation.

Detailed Definition
"Skein" derives from Old French "escaigne," referring primarily to loosely wound yarn or thread, metaphorically to tangled situations, and specifically to geese flying in V-formation. The term appears in contexts of textile work, metaphorical complexity, or natural observation. Poets valued its literal precision—skeins were specific forms of wound yarn—and metaphorical potential—life's tangled skeins represented complexity. The word's application to flying geese added natural imagery to its textile and metaphorical meanings. Its appearance in poetry often carried symbolic weight—winding skeins suggested purposeful activity, tangled skeins represented confusion, geese skeins embodied natural order. The term efficiently conveyed both concrete object and abstract concept, making it valuable for poetry requiring physical imagery that supported metaphorical themes. Its technical specificity in textile contexts grounded metaphorical usage in material reality, while its natural history application connected human craft to natural patterns.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes," the heroine's hair falls in a "silken, hushed, and chaste" skein down her back; A skein of geese flew overhead in dark formation, their honking like distant bells; The poet describes fate as a tangled skein that none can unravel; Her memories formed an intricate skein of joy and sorrow interwoven; The moonlight caught in the skein of morning mist upon the lake; Shakespeare uses "skein" to describe both yarn and flocks of waterfowl in flight
Additional Notes
“Skein” originally referred to a looped bundle of yarn, but poets often employ it metaphorically to describe tangled fates, intricate emotions, or the weaving of life’s patterns. Its secondary sense—a V-formation of geese—adds layers of imagery connected to flight, movement, and unity. Recognising these associations enriches interpretations of poems that intertwine craft, nature, and complexity.
Also Known As
thread yarn strand filament
Skip to main content