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 H

Hakutaku

Folklore
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 benevolent Chinese-Japanese beast that speaks human languages and predicts plagues

Detailed Definition
Hakutaku (Bai Ze) reveals knowledge of demons to aid humanity. In poetry, it symbolizes wisdom, protection, and the intersection of myth and medicine, often appearing in scholarly or apotropaic contexts.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hakutaku, the Chinese/Japanese wise beast, appears in oracle poetry: "Hakutaku speaks in riddles clear—‘Beware the wolf who wears priest’s robe’"; Poets use it to explore prophetic insight: "Nine eyes see past, present, true—Hakutaku warns what kings ignore"; In scholarly verse, it symbolizes knowledge: "Not dragon, not dog—but Hakutaku knows the cure for every ill"; Its rarity inspires wonder: "Once in a century, Hakutaku walks—bringing wisdom to the worthy"
Additional Notes
Hakutaku: A benevolent Chinese-derived beast (Bai Ze in Chinese) in Japanese folklore, appearing to wise rulers to impart knowledge of monsters. Depicted as a six-eyed, horned creature. In poetry, it symbolizes revelation, taxonomy of fear, and the sage’s encounter with the unknown. Useful in encyclopedic or didactic poetry; pairs well with bestiary traditions.
Also Known As
Bai Ze
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