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 D

distillate

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

Distillate is the product of steam distillation yielding essential oils.

Detailed Definition
A distillate in perfumery is the aromatic liquid produced through the process of steam distillation, where plant material is heated with steam to vaporize and capture its volatile essential oils, which are then condensed back into a liquid form. This process represents a crucial act of purification and concentration, transforming a large quantity of botanical matter into a potent, refined essence. In poetry, the distillate becomes a metaphor for the artistic process itself—the act of taking the raw, chaotic experiences of life and distilling them into the purified, concentrated form of a verse. It evokes themes of transformation, refinement, and the pursuit of essence over superfluous detail. A poet might use this image to describe the labor of crafting a poem, the careful removal of the mundane to leave only the essential, the "spirit" of an idea or emotion. The distillate is the alchemist's goal, the pure result of a process of heating, separation, and condensation. It represents the clarity and power that comes from focus and deliberate creation, making it a rich metaphor for the refined expression of thought and feeling in art.
Example
Example in poetry:
Distillate: "The lavender distillate purified the chaotic draft into clear essence."; Educational: Distillate metaphors concentration and purity in revision.
Additional Notes
Distillate from steam distillation produces essential oils capturing plant volatiles, core to natural perfumery for authentic, concentrated aromas like lavender or rose. Poetry students use distillate metaphor for refinement and essence extraction in revision or alchemical verses; usage tip: reference distillate process in poems about creation or pair with enfleurage for contrast in traditional technique explorations. Related to essential oil, absolute, and maceration, distillate teaches extraction methods. This aids professors in interdisciplinary craft lessons, paralleling distillation to poetic distillation of emotion from raw life. Students gain appreciation for volatile yet enduring qualities that mirror memorable literary imagery.
Also Known As
distilled oil condensed vapor distillate oil cohobate (in some contexts)
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