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

Aorangi

Mythology
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 lesser-known atua (god) associated with the sky or heavens in some regional traditions.

Detailed Definition
Aorangi appears in select tribal cosmologies as a celestial being linked to the upper realms, sometimes conflated with Ranginui or other sky deities. Though not prominent in major narratives, Aorangi symbolizes the vastness and mystery of the heavens. Poets invoke Aorangi to evoke ancestral connections to the cosmos and the spiritual dimensions of the sky, especially in chants honoring celestial navigation or divine lineage.
Example
Example in poetry:
Aorangi, the ancestral name for the South Island of New Zealand, appears in waiata (songs) as a symbol of ancient land and lineage; Poets reference Aorangi to evoke the sacred geography shaped by Māui’s fishing up of the North Island; In contemporary Māori poetry, Aorangi is invoked to honor the deep connection between iwi (tribes) and their whenua (land); Aorangi is sometimes personified as a sleeping ancestor whose spine forms the Southern Alps; Poets use Aorangi to contrast modern development with timeless natural beauty; In oral traditions, Aorangi is linked to the canoe Aoraki, whose crew became the mountains of the South Island—this transformation is echoed in poetic imagery of stone and stillness.
Additional Notes
Aorangi is the original Māori name for the South Island of New Zealand, derived from the ancestor Aoraki (often spelled Aorangi in southern dialects), who—along with his brothers—was turned to stone after their canoe capsized, forming the Southern Alps. In poetry, Aorangi symbolizes ancestral presence in the landscape, sacred geography, and the deep interconnection between iwi (tribes) and whenua (land). Note that "Aoraki" is more common in Ngāi Tahu traditions, while "Aorangi" appears in poetic or regional variants. Poets should be mindful of tribal specificity and avoid conflating with Te Waka a Māui (the North Island). This term is powerful for evoking themes of origin, stillness, and transformation.
Also Known As
sky mountain cloud piercer celestial peak
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