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



Chenin

Viniculture
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

Chenin is a white grape variety from France’s Loire Valley, producing wines from dry to sweet, with honey and quince notes.

Detailed Definition
Chenin’s poetic versatility is its hallmark—it can be steely and austere or luscious and honeyed, mirroring the poet’s range of moods. Its high acidity and capacity for aging make it a figure for timelessness and transformation. Poets associate Chenin with the châteaux of the Loire, the river’s gentle flow, and the region’s Renaissance history. Its quince and apple flavors evoke orchards in autumn, while its noble rot expressions recall Sauternes. In verse, Chenin often appears as a reflective, contemplative wine, ideal for meditations on nature, history, and the cycle of seasons.
Example
Example in poetry:
Chenin|"Chenin, the versatile grape of the Loire, is a poem of many moods, from steely dry to honeyed sweet."; "The poet finds in Chenin's quince and apple flavors the taste of autumn orchards, a season of ripeness and decay."; "Chenin's high acidity and capacity for aging make it a wine of longevity, a poet's companion through the years."; "A great Chenin is like a ballad, its simple structure allowing for endless variation and depth."; "The poet uses Chenin to explore the duality of wine, its ability to be both refreshing and profound."; "Chenin, with its noble rot expressions, is a poem of transformation, of sweetness born from decay."
Additional Notes
Chenin Blanc is an ancient grape variety from France's Loire Valley, known for its high acidity and its ability to produce wines that range from bone-dry to lusciously sweet, often with notes of honey, quince, and green apple. This versatility and longevity make Chenin a favorite subject for poets exploring themes of transformation, patience, and the beauty of contrast. The grape's ability to develop noble rot (Botrytis cinerea) adds another layer of complexity, as the same variety can produce both crisp, refreshing wines and rich, decadent dessert wines. Students should consider Chenin's capacity to age, with some examples improving for decades, as a metaphor for the enduring power of a well-crafted poem. Related terms include Sauternes and Loire.
Also Known As
Chenin Blanc
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