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 C

cistus

Perfumery
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

Cistus is a leathery, amber-like resin from rockrose, adding animalic labdanum facets.

Detailed Definition
Cistus, also known as labdanum or rockrose, is a sticky, dark resin exuded by the leaves of the Cistus ladanifer shrub, a key component in the chypre family of perfumes where it provides a leathery, amber-like, and woody-animalic base note. In poetry, cistus serves as a powerful symbol of rugged, wild beauty and the resilience of life in arid landscapes. It is the scent of the Mediterranean macchia, a sun-scorched terrain where this plant thrives, its resin acting as a protective barrier against the elements. Poets use cistus to evoke a sense of ancient, untamed nature—a landscape that is both beautiful and harsh. Its sticky, tenacious quality can symbolize the persistence of the human spirit, the ability to cling to life in difficult circumstances. The resin's use in perfumery to "ground" and give depth to a fragrance translates poetically into an image of something that provides foundational strength and character. It suggests a primal earthiness, a connection to the sun-baked soil, and a beauty that is not delicate or cultivated but fierce, self-protective, and enduring, making it an ideal image for poems about survival, the natural world, and the raw aesthetics of the Mediterranean.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Cistus resin clung to the hillside air, leathery, amber-dark, and sun-struck”; Also called labdanum, cistus can lend a poem a rugged Mediterranean atmosphere; “Her coat held cistus, smoke, and salt,” uses scent to characterize a traveler; In perfumery, cistus is a resinous base note associated with amber, leather, and balsamic warmth
Additional Notes
Cistus rockrose resin provides leathery, amber-like animalic facets through labdanum, central to chypre bases for primal, resinous grounding. Poetry students employ cistus for rugged Mediterranean landscapes or sensual earthiness in nature or body-themed works; usage tip: layer cistus with oakmoss for classic chypre depth or florals for contrast in verses exploring wild versus cultivated beauty. Related to labdanum and animalic, cistus connects to ancient harvesting traditions. This aids professors in discussions of raw materials' transformative power, paralleling poetic refinement of experience. Students gain insight into how leathery notes add textural boldness, enhancing tactile imagery that conveys resilience and ancient vitality in literary expression.
Also Known As
rock rose labdanum (resin) cistus labdanum ladanum
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