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 B

beacon

Nautical
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 fixed or floating light signal used to warn or guide ships, often a lightship or a lighthouse.

Detailed Definition
The beacon is a fire in the dark, a human-made star that shines for the benefit of strangers. In poetry, it symbolizes hope, salvation, and the selfless gift of illumination to the lost. The beacon's light is steady, unwavering, a promise of land and safety. Poets use the beacon to discuss moral guidance, the presence of a benevolent order, and the way a single point of light can transform despair into confidence. Its association with lighthouses and signal fires ties it to ancient traditions of hospitality and warning, making it a timeless image of human care.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Fair shines the beacon from its lonely rock, stable alone amid the unstable waves” (Lewis Morris).; “I thought that the beacon look’d lovely as hope, the star of life’s tremulous ocean” (from a 19th-century hymn).; “The beacon stands on the shore, to prevent a sad harm, through watching and careful avoidance” (anonymous).; A beacon in poetry often symbolizes a guiding principle or a loved one’s unwavering presence.; Poets use the beacon to represent moral clarity that cuts through moral fog.; The beacon’s light, sweeping the dark sea, becomes a metaphor for the artist’s vision reaching across ignorance.
Additional Notes
Beacons in poetry transcend their literal function as navigational aids to become potent symbols of hope, moral guidance, and human care reaching across darkness. Unlike the lighthouse, which is a fixed structure, a beacon can be a floating lightship or a temporary signal, lending it a more transient, almost sacrificial quality. In literary tradition, the beacon often appears as a "star of the sea" or a "fire in the night" that offers salvation to the lost. Poets use it to explore the idea of a guiding principle that remains steadfast while all else shifts. The beacon's light is both an invitation and a warning—it shows the way but also marks danger. When writing, consider the emotional weight of a solitary light seen from far off, and how its steady pulse or rotation might mimic the heartbeat of hope or the rhythm of a distant, caring presence.
Also Known As
Beacon light sea mark navigation mark signal fire Pharos
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