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 R

River

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 natural flowing watercourse, often symbolizing purification, the flow of time, spiritual journey, or a boundary between worlds in religious contexts.

Detailed Definition
Rivers hold immense sacred significance across religions. The Ganges in Hinduism is a goddess of purification; the Jordan River in Christianity is a site of baptism; in Buddhism, crossing the river symbolizes the journey to enlightenment. Poets use the river as a powerful metaphor for the relentless flow of time, life's journey, spiritual cleansing, and the constant state of change (impermanence). Its dual nature—both a life-giving source and a destructive force—makes it a versatile symbol for exploring themes of transition, destiny, and the deep currents of human experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
In biblical poetry, River symbolizes life: “Living waters—River from Eden’s garden”; In Hindu verse, Ganges River purifies: “Dip in Ganga—River washes sins like silt”; In Zen poetry, River is flow of mind: “No stopping—River, thoughts pass like leaves”; Contemporary poets use River for resilience: “Mississippi floods—River reclaims what concrete tried to hold.”
Additional Notes
Rivers—Ganges, Jordan, Styx—symbolize purification (baptism), boundary (crossing into afterlife), or divine flow (Psalm 46:4); their constant movement mirrors impermanence and grace; poets use rivers to explore surrender (floating), resistance (swimming upstream), or the confluence of human and sacred currents in a single stream of being.
Other Meanings of “River”
Also Known As
Jordan River Ganges Styx (mythological) Stream abhainn
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