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 P

Presence

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

The felt immanence or nearness of the divine, a spiritual reality experienced by the faithful.

Detailed Definition
The sense of a sacred presence—whether in a place, a ritual, or the heart—is a core religious experience. It can be comforting, awe-inspiring, or terrifying. In poetry, evoking this numinous presence is a primary goal. Poets use imagery, silence, and evocative language to create a sense of the divine breaking into the ordinary world. The quest for this presence, the agony of its absence (deus absconditus), and the peace of its communion are central themes in spiritual verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In biblical poetry, Presence (Shekhinah) dwells among people: “Tent of meeting—Presence in the cloud and fire”; In Sufi verse, Presence is felt, not seen: “You are here—Presence hums in the space between breaths”; In Zen poetry, Presence is now: “Chop wood, carry water—Presence in ordinary hands”; Contemporary poets describe Presence as comfort: “Hospital room—Presence held me when words failed.”
Additional Notes
Presence (Shekhinah in Judaism, Sakina in Islam, Real Presence in Eucharist) denotes God’s nearness rather than distance; it may be felt in community, nature, or silence; poets evoke presence through sensory detail—light on water, breath in stillness—suggesting the divine not as distant monarch but as intimate companion in ordinary moments.
Also Known As
Shekhinah Divine Presence Manifestation Being Metaphysics of presence
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