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 G

Gargoyle

Architecture
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 carved waterspout, often shaped like a grotesque creature. In poetry, it can join the comic, monstrous, and protective aspects of imagination.

Detailed Definition
A gargoyle channels rainwater away from a building while often presenting an exaggerated animal or monstrous face. This practical and fantastic double purpose gives it rich poetic force. It may stand for the grotesque guardian, the ugly form that preserves a beautiful interior, or the voice that spits out what others cannot say. In poems of weather, urban decay, folklore, or fear, the gargoyle can watch from above, converting stormwater into a fierce and theatrical expression.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The gargoyle pours rain from its open stone mouth” describes its practical role as a waterspout; A Gothic poem may let a gargoyle become a watcher that has observed generations pass below; “At midnight, the gargoyle’s grin outlasts the wedding bells” uses grotesque sculpture to darken a celebratory scene; Poets can contrast a gargoyle’s frightening face with its protective function, suggesting that ugliness may guard what is vulnerable
Additional Notes
Gargoyles channel rain away while displaying grotesque forms. Use them to combine protection and menace, or to show how fear can become decorative and useful.
Also Known As
Waterspout Grotesque
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