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.

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

Spoken word style

Style
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 performance-based style rooted in speech and rhythm; this style emphasizes oral delivery, often incorporating musicality, slang, and direct address, making it accessible and dynamic for performance or slam poetry contexts.

Detailed Definition
Spoken word style prioritises immediacy and audience connection. It appears in poetry to reclaim oral tradition.
Example
Example in poetry:
Amanda Gorman’s inaugural performance demonstrates spoken word’s reliance on cadence, clarity, and public address; Saul Williams combines hip-hop rhythms, political urgency, and dramatic shifts in volume and pace; “Say her name” repeated before an audience can turn a line into collective witness; Spoken word is written for the ear as well as the page, so breath, timing, and audience response matter
Additional Notes
Spoken word style is built for the ear: direct address, narrative clarity, rhythmic drive, and rhetorical escalation designed to land in performance. Students should examine devices borrowed from speech and music: repetition, anaphora, punchy line endings, and audience-oriented pacing. It is often socially engaged and rooted in lived experience, but can range widely in topic. In writing, test every draft aloud; revise for breath, emphasis, and intelligibility on first hearing. A key tip is to craft strong openings and endings: the first line should hook, and the last should resonate. Discuss how spoken word interacts with page poetry: what is gained in immediacy and what is potentially lost in visual subtlety, and how poets can bridge both.
Also Known As
Oral Poetry Style Spoken-Word Poetry Performance Spoken Word
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