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



Compare Poets

Pick two poets who seem to have nothing to do with each other — a Gothic American and a pastoral Englishman, say — and see where the catalogue actually joins them: overlapping years, shared ground, distinctive themes, and the poems that secretly rhyme.

Poet A

Douglas Malloch Douglas Malloch

Poet B

Bliss Carman Bliss Carman
Compare two related contemporaries

A random pair who overlapped in time and whose poems already rhyme in the catalogue — a way into poets you may not have met.

Kindred spirits
Their work already rhymes in the catalogue. The rest of this page is the story around that rhyme.
Biography 68% Poems 84% Blended 75%
Swap sides Another related pair
Douglas Malloch

Douglas Malloch

5 May 1877 – 2 July 1938 (~61)
2 live poems · English

Douglas Malloch was born on 5 May 1877 in Muskegon, Michigan, a city whose identity had been built in large measure from timber, water, sawmills, ships, and the difficult labor of turning northern forests into the materials of American expansion. He died on 2 July 1938, leaving behind a body of verse that was once widely circulated in newspapers, trade journals, recitation books, schoolrooms, and inspirational anthol…

“The difference between a stepping-stone and a stumbling block is how high you raise your foot.”

Neighbourhood: American Poets, Children's Verse, Edwardian Poets, Georgian Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Peace, Spirituality
Bliss Carman

Bliss Carman

15 April 1861 – 8 June 1929 (~68)
12 live poems · English

William Bliss Carman, known throughout his literary life as Bliss Carman, was born on 15 April 1861 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and died on 8 June 1929 in New Canaan, Connecticut. For several decades around the turn of the twentieth century, he was among the most widely read poets associated with Canada. He enjoyed an international reputation unusual for a Canadian writer of his generation, published extensively i…

“The greatest thing in the world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.”

Neighbourhood: Edwardian Poets, Folk & Ballad Poets, Nature Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Peace

In time

Douglas Malloch
Bliss Carman
1861 1938
They overlapped for 53 years (1877–1929). When Douglas Malloch was born, Bliss Carman was about 16. Douglas Malloch was about 52 when Bliss Carman died.

On the map

About 1,578 km separate Muskegon, Michigan, USA from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Shared ground: United States.

Themes they return to

Distinctive words drawn from each poet’s critiqued poems — what they keep writing about, not just what their biographies mention.

Shared

From the biographies

Douglas Malloch: muskegon, lumbermen's poet, be the best of whatever you are, the passing of the pine, great lakes region, american lumberman, progressive era, regional poet. Bliss Carman: fredericton, new brunswick, low tide on grand pré, songs from vagabondia, richard hovey, sappho: one hundred lyrics, the joys of the road, mary perry king.

Poems that secretly rhyme

The closest poem-to-poem matches in critique space — the sort of kinship a listener hears before the catalogue admits it.

Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
75% life
Compare
The Joys Of The Road
Bliss Carman
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
74% life
Compare
The Enchanted Traveller
Bliss Carman
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
74%
Compare
Nike
Bliss Carman
Be the Best of Whatever You Are
Douglas Malloch
74%
Compare
Vestigia
Bliss Carman
Who Understands
Douglas Malloch
74%
Compare
The World Voice
Bliss Carman

The world around them

While their lives overlapped

Notable events from the years they were both alive.

Emotional landscapes

Douglas Malloch: Tenderness, Peace, Spirituality. Bliss Carman: Spirituality, Wonder, Peace.

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