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 A

Ananda

World Religion
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 Buddha’s cousin and devoted attendant, renowned for his exceptional memory and role in preserving the teachings.

Detailed Definition
Ananda is celebrated as the “Treasurer of the Dharma” for reciting the suttas at the First Council. In poetry, he represents loyalty, service, and the human side of the early Sangha. Poets often depict him weeping at the Buddha’s passing or gently questioning the Master, making him a relatable figure who bridges the divine and the personal in Buddhist narrative.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a Pali verse rendered poetically: “Ananda, bearer of the Dhamma, held the Buddha’s words like water in cupped hands”; A feminist poem reimagines Ananda’s plea for women’s ordination: “He knelt not in submission, but in justice—‘Let them shine too’”; A modern lyric calls Ananda “the first oral archivist, memorizing silence between teachings”; A minimalist haiku: “Ananda weeps—/ his tears become sutras / inked by moonlight.”
Additional Notes
Ananda’s role as the Buddha’s personal attendant for 25 years and his prodigious memory made him instrumental at the First Buddhist Council, where he recited the Sutta Pitaka verbatim. Though beloved, he attained arhatship only after the Buddha’s parinirvana, adding a human dimension to his story. In Buddhist literature, Ananda often represents compassion balanced with inquiry—he famously asked the Buddha to allow women’s ordination. Poets and playwrights use Ananda to explore themes of loyalty, memory, and the tension between emotional attachment and liberation, making him a compelling figure in both canonical and creative texts.
Also Known As
Bliss Joy
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