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 L

Light Year

Astronomy
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

The distance light travels in a vacuum over one year (about 5.88 trillion miles); used in astronomical poetry to measure vast cosmic scales.

Detailed Definition
A light year is a unit of distance that measures how far light travels in one year, approximately 5.88 trillion miles. In poetry, light years can symbolize the vastness of the universe and the immense distances that separate us from celestial bodies, evoking feelings of longing and exploration. This concept encourages poets to consider the passage of time, the connections that transcend distance, and the ways in which our understanding of the cosmos shapes our perception of reality and our place within it.
Example
Example in poetry:
A light year measures the distance of dreams, a journey through the cosmos; poets use it to express the vastness of love, stretching across the universe; each year a testament to time's passage; in its expanse, we find connection.
Additional Notes
A light year is a unit of distance that represents the distance light travels in one year, approximately 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers. This measurement is commonly used in astronomy to express vast distances between celestial objects, such as stars and galaxies. Understanding light years is crucial for grasping the scale of the universe and the time it takes for light from distant objects to reach us. Related concepts include parsecs and astronomical units, which are other units of measurement used in astronomy to describe distances.
Also Known As
Light-Year
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