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

bean feasa

Dialect
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 Irish wise woman or woman of knowledge, a figure in folk tradition who possessed healing arts, prophetic ability, and knowledge of the supernatural world, often appearing in poetry as an ambiguous figure of wisdom and power.

Detailed Definition
Bean feasa (woman of knowledge) occupies an important position in Irish folk belief alongside the healer, the midwife, and the wisewoman who could communicate with the otherworld. In poetry she figures as a source of alternative knowledge — feminine, intuitive, connected to the rhythms of nature and the supernatural — that stands apart from and sometimes challenges official male authority. Revival poets interested in recovering suppressed forms of Irish spirituality were drawn to the bean feasa as a figure who embodied a pre-Christian relationship to knowledge and power. She appears in verse as oracle, healer, and threshold figure between the human and supernatural worlds.
Example
Example in poetry:
The bean feasa possesses knowledge of herbs, healing, and hidden truths; In folklore, the bean feasa advises heroes on their quests through dangerous lands; The poet consults the bean feasa to interpret mysterious omens and signs; Her wisdom surpasses that of warriors, making the bean feasa a powerful figure; The bean feasa represents female intellectual authority in traditionally male-dominated narratives; Stories of the bean feasa highlight the importance of knowledge over brute strength.
Additional Notes
The bean feasa (woman of knowledge) is a figure of female authority and wisdom in Irish folklore, often overlapping with roles of healer, midwife, and prophet. In poetry, she represents an alternative source of power to male heroic strength, relying on intellect, intuition, and connection to natural forces. She is frequently consulted by heroes seeking guidance, highlighting the value placed on knowledge and counsel in Irish narrative tradition. Analyzing her character reveals complex gender dynamics where women hold significant spiritual and practical power.
Also Known As
wise woman healer cunning woman bean ghlic
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