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

Midrash

World Religion
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 Jewish method of interpretation and commentary that explores and elaborates on biblical texts.

Detailed Definition
Midrash is a rabbinic literature form that seeks to fill in gaps, resolve contradictions, and derive contemporary meaning from the Hebrew Bible. It often takes the form of imaginative stories, parables, and legal discussions. In a literary context, Midrash represents the creative and ongoing dialogue with sacred text. Poets engage in a midrashic process by re-imagining biblical characters and events, giving voice to silent figures, and drawing new, personal meanings from ancient narratives, thus continuing the tradition of making old stories speak to new realities.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Jewish poetic midrash, gaps in scripture are filled with imagination: “What did Miriam feel at the Red Sea? Midrash gives her song”; In contemporary verse, Midrash reinterprets patriarchy: “Sarah speaks—Midrash restores her voice to Genesis”; Poets use Midrash to explore ethics: “Why did Jonah flee? Midrash says: he feared God’s Mercy too much”; Midrash becomes creative theology: “Not just explanation—Midrash is poetry that wrestles with God.”
Additional Notes
Midrash fills gaps in biblical narrative through imaginative exegesis, ethical teaching, and homiletic expansion; it treats Scripture as a living text open to dialogue across generations; for poets, midrash models creative interpretation—transforming silence into story, ambiguity into moral insight, and ancient words into contemporary resonance.
Also Known As
Aggadah (non-legal Midrash) Rabbinic Exegesis
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