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 K

Kestrel

Birds
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 small, agile falcon notable for its ability to hover motionless in midair while scanning for prey, often symbolizing precision and focus in poetry.

Detailed Definition
The kestrel’s hovering flight—“wind-hovering” as Gerard Manley Hopkins called it—makes it a symbol of poised attention and divine presence in poetry. Its stillness amid motion evokes spiritual contemplation, precision, and the sacred in the ordinary. Poets use the kestrel to explore themes of focus, grace under pressure, and the intersection of the mundane and the miraculous in natural observation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “The Windhover” celebrates the kestrel hovering “in his ecstasy,” symbolizing divine beauty in motion; Poets use the kestrel’s stillness in wind as a metaphor for spiritual focus amid chaos; In rural verse, the kestrel’s dive represents precision and instinctual grace; The bird’s small size yet fierce hunting makes it a symbol of quiet strength; Modern ecopoetry links the kestrel to farmland health and ecological balance.
Additional Notes
The kestrel, famed for hovering in place while hunting, became iconic through Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “The Windhover,” where it symbolizes divine beauty in motion. Its poised stillness amid wind offers rich metaphor for spiritual focus, artistic precision, or grace under pressure. Related concepts: “wind-hovering,” “raptor stillness,” “ecological indicator.” Students should study Hopkins’s sprung rhythm and how it mirrors the bird’s dynamic suspension.
Also Known As
Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus Windhover Hoverhawk
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