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 M

merels

Games
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

Merels is another name for nine men's morris or related alignment games played by placing pieces to form rows.

Detailed Definition
Merels enters poetry through its association with medieval pastimes and the geometry of fate. In literature it represents the drawing of lines that constrain or liberate players. Poets invoke merels to suggest the invisible patterns governing chance encounters or strategic relationships, linking the simple board to larger designs of destiny and human interaction.
Example
Example in poetry:
Merels, the alignment game, appear in poems of pattern and capture; Traditional verse uses the board for the formation of lines that remove the opponent; “He closed the merels and the last piece was taken” illustrates completed strategy; Educational poetry shows the game as a cousin of nine men’s morris; Poets keep merels when the geometry of the contest must remain visible and exact.
Additional Notes
Merels, as another name for the alignment games, preserves a traditional vocabulary of pattern and capture. The board’s geometry of mills and removals rewards spatial reading. Classroom discussion can usefully compare merels with nine men’s morris for continuity of structure and variation of name. Related alignment games include the various regional forms. The image is effective when the formation of a line must lead directly to the removal of a piece.
Also Known As
nine men's morris mills morelles morris Nine Men's Morris Board
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