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

Strigoi

Folklore
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

Romanian undead vampires or witches that rise from graves to harm the living

Detailed Definition
Strigoi result from improper burial or immoral life. In poetry, they embody cultural fears of death pollution, the return of the repressed, and the fragility of boundaries, often appearing in gothic or Eastern European verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Strigoi, Romanian undead, haunt blood poetry: "Strigoi drinks his family’s blood—returns from grave to feast again"; Poets use them to explore familial betrayal: "He loved them in life, now drains them—Strigoi’s curse is kinship turned"; In protective verse, they’re warded by garlic and thorns: "Place steel beneath the pillow—Strigoi fears the living’s will"; Their ambiguity reflects death’s liminality: "Not ghost, not vampire—Strigoi walks the edge of worlds"
Additional Notes
Strigoi: Vampiric or revenant beings in Romanian folklore, rising from improper burials or unbaptized souls, capable of shapeshifting and draining life. Divided into living (strigoi viu) and dead (strigoi mort) types. In poetry, they embody social transgression, liminal death, and Eastern European gothic. Related to Slavic vampires but distinct; useful in post-Dracula verse reclaiming regional specificity—avoid conflating with Hollywood vampires.
Also Known As
Romanian vampire Strigoaică (female) Strix Owl
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