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

Yielding turn

Device
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 pivot in a poem that conveys concession, softening, or emotional surrender rather than resistance

Detailed Definition
A Yielding turn is a pivot in a poem where the speaker concedes, surrenders, or opens emotionally—often marked by words like “yet,” “still,” or “but”—without defiance or argument; distinct from the logical volta of traditional sonnets, it emphasizes vulnerability, compassion, or awe; found in poems of reconciliation, grief, or wonder (e.g., Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me”), it models an alternative to conflict-driven narrative arcs by centering humility and relational awareness.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “One Art,” Elizabeth Bishop yields: “—Even losing you… I shan’t have lied. It’s evident”; Robert Frost’s “Directive” turns with yielding: “Drink and be whole again beyond confusion”; Tracy K. Smith’s “The United States Welcomes You” shifts from fear to empathy: “We mean to be good neighbors”; Ocean Vuong’s “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” surrenders: “Ocean, don’t be afraid”; Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” concedes: “come celebrate with me that everyday / something has tried to kill me”; Ada Limón’s “The Leash” yields from isolation to connection: “we are all walking the same dog”
Additional Notes
A Yielding turn is a pivot in a poem where the speaker concedes, surrenders, or opens emotionally—often marked by words like “but,” “yet,” or “still,” yet without defiance; unlike the argumentative volta of sonnets, it emphasizes vulnerability over logic; found in poems of apology, reconciliation, or awe (e.g., “I thought I knew… but the river taught me otherwise”); students should distinguish it from defeat—it’s an active softening; useful in teaching emotional intelligence in poetry and alternatives to conflict-driven narrative arcs.
Also Known As
Soft volta surrendering pivot compassionate turn empathetic shift granting turn
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