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

Smart cookie

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

An intelligent, clever, or shrewd person; cookie metaphor suggesting sweetness combined with substance, describing someone mentally agile, perceptive, and capable of smart decisions.

Detailed Definition
Smart cookie means a clever, capable, quick-witted, or resourceful person. In poetry, the idiom brings warmth and informality to praise, often suiting comic portraits, affectionate speech, school settings, or dramatic monologues. The cookie image softens intelligence, making it approachable rather than austere. A poet may use it sincerely for practical cleverness, or ironically when cleverness becomes manipulation. The phrase is useful for characterisation, especially when intelligence appears in ordinary, lively, or unexpected forms.
Example
Example in poetry:
A school poem might call the quiet girl a smart cookie when she solves the riddle first; In comic verse, the fox is a smart cookie until the hens outwit him; The phrase means a clever person; A poet can use it for affectionate praise or playful irony.
Additional Notes
A smart cookie is an intelligent, capable, or shrewd person. The idiom is informal, affectionate, and slightly playful, often suited to comic voice or character sketch. In poetry, it can humanise cleverness by making it domestic and edible rather than lofty. Students should note that cookie is more American than biscuit, so the phrase may mark register or cultural setting. It pairs well with schoolrooms, kitchens, quick answers, and underestimated wit.
Also Known As
clever person
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