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 Y

yardarm

Nautical
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

The horizontal spar suspended from a mast to support the head of a square sail.

Detailed Definition
The yardarm is the iconic crosspiece that gives square-riggers their distinctive cruciform silhouette. In poetry, its intersection with the mast forms a powerful visual of human engineering set against the sky, often invoking religious or cosmic resonances. It is the point from which signal flags fly and, historically, where condemned sailors were hanged, giving it a dark association with judgment and finality. Poets employ the yardarm to discuss the intersection of vertical and horizontal—heaven and earth, purpose and spread—and its symmetry suggests balance, precision, and the grand, ordered vision of the Age of Sail.
Example
Example in poetry:
The yardarm in poetry forms a powerful visual of human engineering set against the sky, often invoking religious or cosmic resonances.; It is the point from which signal flags fly and, historically, where condemned sailors were hanged, giving it a dark association with judgment.; Poets employ the yardarm to discuss the intersection of vertical and horizontal—heaven and earth, purpose and spread.; Its symmetry suggests balance, precision, and the grand, ordered vision of the Age of Sail.; The yardarm is the horizontal spar suspended from a mast to support the head of a square sail.; It is the iconic crosspiece that gives square-riggers their distinctive cruciform silhouette.
Additional Notes
The yardarm is the horizontal spar suspended from a mast to support a square sail. Its intersection with the mast forms a powerful, cruciform visual that poets exploit for religious and cosmic resonance. It is the point from which signal flags fly and, historically, where condemned sailors were hanged, giving it a dark association with judgment. Poets employ the yardarm to discuss the intersection of vertical and horizontal—heaven and earth, purpose and spread. Its symmetry suggests balance, precision, and the grand, ordered vision of the Age of Sail, a central image of nautical engineering and human aspiration.
Also Known As
Yard cross tree (related) spar arm
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