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.

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 M

Martha and Mary

Biblical
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

Martha and Mary are sisters whose contrasting responses to Jesus explore service and attention.

Detailed Definition
In the Gospel story, Martha works to provide hospitality while Mary sits listening, and Jesus challenges the anxiety that makes service resentful. Elsewhere the sisters meet grief with faith after Lazarus dies. Together they offer poetry a pair of complementary stances: labor and contemplation, practical care and searching speech, each capable of love yet each vulnerable to distraction or despair.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet may contrast Martha’s busy service with Mary’s attentive listening in a poem about competing kinds of devotion; “Martha and Mary” can represent action and contemplation within one divided heart; A domestic poem may retell their story through a worker who longs to sit and listen; The names can invite reflection on hospitality, spiritual attention, resentment, and love.
Additional Notes
Martha and Mary are sisters in Luke 10 and John 11–12. Martha is associated with active hospitality and service, while Mary is shown listening at Jesus’ feet and later expressing devotion by anointing him. Their stories should not be reduced to a simple condemnation of work; they invite reflection on attention, hospitality, grief, faith, and the different forms love may take. Lazarus is their brother.
Also Known As
Mary and Martha Sisters of Bethany Martha and Mary of Bethany
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