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.

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



Poem fractal

Side by side

Random

0.037 apart. A smaller distance means the lines are built more alike.

This number is read from the build of the lines. The bright edge is that number, carried outward until the pattern repeats.

Declaration

by Fenton Johnson

−0.6406 + 0.3659i

Drawing the boundary…

Nature

by Allan Cunningham

−0.6056 + 0.3777i

Drawing the boundary…

The poems

Each poem scrolls on its own, so the two texts stay beside each other.

Declaration

by Fenton Johnson

I love the world and all therein:
The panting, darkened souls who seek
A brighter light, a sweeter hope,
From those who drink the bubbling wine
And eat the flesh of tender fowl;
I love the pampered son of wealth,
And pour on him my pity's oil,
This world our God hath made for all,—
The East, the West, the black, the white,
The rich, the poor, the wise, the dumb,—
And even beasts may share the fruit;
No prison wall, but sunlight's glow,
No rods of steel, but arms of love,
For all that creep and walk and strive
And wear upon their countenance
Creation's mark, the kiss of God.

Nature

by Allan Cunningham

O Nature! holy, meek, and mild,
Thou dweller on the mountain wild; 
Thou haunter of the lonesome wood; 
Thou wanderer by the secret flood; 
Thou lover of the daisied sod, 
Where Spring's white foot hath lately trod 
Finder of flowers fresh-sprung and new. 
Where sunshine comes to seek the dew; 
Twiner of bowers for lovers meet; 
Smoother of sods for poets' feet; 
Thrice-sainted matron! in whose face, 
Who looks in love will light on grace; 
Far-worshipp'd goddess! one who gives 
Her love to him who wisely lives; — 
Oh! take my hand, and place me on 
The daisied footstool of thy throne; 
And pass before my darken'd sight 
Thy hand which lets in charmed light; 
And touch my soul, and let me see 
The ways of God, fair dame, in thee. 

Or lead me forth o'er dales and meads, 
Even as her child the mother leads; 
Where corn, yet milk in its green ears, 
The dew upon its shot-blade bears; 
Where blooming clover grows, and where 
She licks her scented foot, the hare; 
Where twin-nuts cluster thick, and springs 
The thistle with ten thousand stings; 
Untrodden flowers and unpruned trees, 
Gladden'd with songs of birds and bees; 
The ring where last the fairies danced — 
The place where dank Will latest glanced — 
The tower round which the magic shell 
Of minstrel threw its lasting spell — 
The stream that steals its way along, 
To glory consecrate by song: 
And while we saunter, let thy speech 
God's glory and his goodness preach. 

Or, when the sun sinks, and the bright 
Round moon sheds down her lust'rous light; 
When larks leave song, and men leave toiling; 
And hearths burn clear, and maids are smiling 
When hoary hinds, with rustic saws, 
Lay down to youth thy golden laws; 
And beauty is her wet cheek laying 
To her sweet child, and silent praying: 
With Thee in hallow'd mood I'll go, 
Through scenes of gladness or of woe:
Thy looks inspired, thy chasten'd speech, 
Me more than man hath taught, shall teach; 
And much that's gross, and more that's vain, 
As chaff from corn, shall leave my strain. 

I feel thy presence and thy power,
As feels the rain yon parched flower; 
It lifts its head, spreads forth its bloom,
Smiles to the sky, and sheds perfume. 
A child of woe, sprung from the clod, 
Through Thee seeks to ascend to God. 

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