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



Peony

Flora
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 perennial with large, often fragrant blooms in pink, red, white, or yellow, with glossy foliage.

Detailed Definition
Peonies symbolize romance, prosperity, honor, and happy marriage in poetry. Their luxurious, layered blooms represent abundance and sensual beauty. In Chinese poetry, peonies are king of flowers, representing nobility and wealth. The flowers' brief but spectacular blooming emphasizes beauty's transience. Ants often visible on buds before opening add curious natural detail. Poets use peonies to represent fullness of beauty, the rewards of patience, marriage hopes, and blooms so abundant they require support, suggesting beauty that overwhelms its own structure.
Example
Example in poetry:
Peonies' lush, full blooms symbolize romance, prosperity, and bashfulness in flower language; In Chinese poetry, peonies represent wealth, honor, and feminine beauty; The flowers' brief but spectacular bloom period emphasizes seizing beauty's moment; Peony buds covered with ants create imagery of natural cooperation and protection; In cottage garden poetry, peonies represent old-fashioned abundance and grandmother's flowers; The plant's longevity (decades in one spot) symbolizes endurance and faithful return
Additional Notes
Peony is a flower of fullness: large, often fragrant blooms that can appear almost over-luxurious, making it a natural symbol of prosperity, romance, and sometimes excess. Because peonies open from tight buds into expansive petals, they suit metaphors of unfolding feeling and sudden abundance. In some traditions they’re linked with honour and wealth, adding cultural depth. Their heavy heads can also suggest vulnerability: beauty that droops, splendour that must be supported, desire that tips into collapse.
Other Meanings of “Peony”
Also Known As
Paeony Piney (regional) Paeonia
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