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 Z

Zigzag

Idiomatic Phrase
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

An onomatopoeic idiom describing movement or progression in a series of sharp, alternating directional changes; in poetry, it can mirror erratic thought processes, unpredictable narrative paths, or the jagged, non-linear nature of memory and experience.

Detailed Definition
Zigzag means to move in sharp alternating directions rather than a straight line, and figuratively to behave erratically, change course, or follow an indirect path. In poetry, the idiom can describe lightning, paths, thought, memory, policy, desire, or a life that refuses linear progress. Its shape is visually vivid and rhythmically energetic. A poet may use it for instability, playfulness, evasiveness, or survival. The phrase is useful for exploring indirect movement, sudden turns, and the broken geometry of experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
A nature poem might trace the river's zigzag through reeds and moonlight; In a comic quest, the frightened messenger takes a zigzag path to avoid every barking dog; The word zigzag describes a line or movement with sharp turns from side to side; A poet can use it for wandering thought, nervous motion, or broken rhythm.
Additional Notes
Zigzag describes movement in sharp alternating turns rather than a straight line. As an idiomatic image, it can suggest evasion, uncertainty, playfulness, instability, or tactical progress. In poetry, it suits lightning, paths, stitches, rivers, thoughts, dancers, soldiers under fire, or a life that advances indirectly. Students should ask whether the zigzag is confusion or wisdom, since not every journey can be straight. It pairs well with thread, maps, roads, and restless syntax.
Also Known As
alternate tack
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