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

Astarte

Biblical
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 Canaanite goddess of fertility and war, frequently condemned in the Hebrew Bible.

Detailed Definition
Astarte worship represented the seductive idolatry that led Israel astray (Judges 2:13). In poetry, she symbolizes forbidden allure, the corruption of sacred love, and the peril of syncretism, often contrasted with the purity of Yahweh worship.
Example
Example in poetry:
Astarte—Canaanite fertility goddess—appears in poetic warnings: “Israel bowed to Astarte’s stars, trading covenant for celestial lust”; A feminist reimagining: “Astarte’s tears fall on every altar where women’s bodies are offered”; In a lament: “The groves of Astarte still grow—in hearts that seek life from dead idols”; Modern verse: “Our Astartes wear neon now, but her song still drowns the Sabbath.”
Additional Notes
Astarte (Ashtoreth in Hebrew) was a major Canaanite fertility goddess, frequently condemned in the Bible (e.g., 1 Kings 11:5). Her worship involved ritual prostitution and syncretism, making her a symbol of idolatrous seduction. In poetic tradition, Astarte embodies the allure of the forbidden, the feminine divine outside monotheism, and the cultural tensions of religious boundary maintenance.
Also Known As
Ashtoreth Ishtar
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