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 T

Towhee

Birds
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 ground-foraging sparrow-like bird known for its rust-colored sides and scratchy song.

Detailed Definition
Towhees symbolize earthiness, hidden music, and the understory of life in poetry. Their habit of scratching leaf litter evokes themes of uncovering and revelation. Often heard more than seen, they represent the quiet persistence of marginal spaces. Poets use towhees to explore the beauty of the overlooked, the rhythm of daily foraging, and the subtle songs that rise from the forest floor, grounding verse in the tactile world of soil and leaf.
Example
Example in poetry:
In North American woodland poetry, the towhee’s habit of scratching leaf litter symbolizes uncovering, revelation, and earth-bound foraging; Poets use the eastern towhee’s “drink-your-tea” song to evoke the acoustic signature of forest edges and brushy thickets; Its rust-colored sides and white belly appear in color imagery as understated beauty in dappled light; Ecopoets reference towhees to discuss habitat loss from development and the importance of shrubby understories; The towhee’s tendency to flush suddenly from cover inspires metaphors for hidden presence and surprise; Its ground-nesting habits symbolize vulnerability and connection to soil and leaf litter.
Additional Notes
Towhee: Ground-foraging sparrows (e.g., eastern towhee) with striking plumage and “drink-your-tea!” song. Symbolize underbrush mystery, sudden flashes from cover, and rust-colored earth tones. Their scratching behavior offers kinetic detail—ideal for poems about hidden layers or forest floor life.
Also Known As
Eastern Towhee Spotted Towhee Rufous-sided Towhee (historical name)
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