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

Arbutus

Flora
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 evergreen shrub or small tree with red peeling bark, white urn-shaped flowers, and red strawberry-like fruits.

Detailed Definition
The arbutus, also called strawberry tree, appears in Mediterranean poetry and Irish verse as a symbol of endurance, transformation, and natural artistry. Its simultaneously bearing flowers and fruits represents ongoing cycles of creation. In Irish poetry, arbutus evokes coastal landscapes and ancient forests. The tree's red bark, white flowers, and red fruits create visual richness that poets use to explore beauty's layered complexity and nature's generous abundance across seasons.
Example
Example in poetry:
Arbutus, or strawberry tree, with its simultaneous flowers and fruit symbolizes the coexistence of youth and maturity in poetry; The Mediterranean arbutus appears in classical pastoral poetry as part of idealized natural landscapes; Its red, strawberry-like fruits provide colorful imagery for autumn poetry celebrating nature's bounty; In Irish and Scottish verse, arbutus represents endurance and the beauty of coastal landscapes where it thrives; The tree's evergreen nature and rough bark make it a symbol of constancy and rugged beauty; Poets use arbutus flowers and fruit appearing together as metaphors for life's different stages occurring simultaneously
Additional Notes
Arbutus, sometimes called the strawberry tree, is notable for bearing flower and fruit simultaneously, making it a symbol of continuity and cyclical time. Its peeling red bark and evergreen leaves provide vivid visual contrast. In Irish and Mediterranean writing it can evoke rugged coastal landscapes and endurance amid rocky terrain.
Also Known As
Strawberry Tree
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