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

Rupa

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

Form or materiality in Buddhist philosophy, the first of the Five Aggregates that constitute a person.

Detailed Definition
Rupa includes the physical body and external matter, seen as impermanent and empty of inherent self. In poetry, rupa is often contrasted with mind or spirit—yet also honored as the vessel of practice. Poets describe aging bodies, decaying flowers, or moonlit forms to meditate on the beauty and fragility of embodied existence.
Example
Example in poetry:
A Buddhist poem: “Rūpa is form—but also the trap of mistaking appearance for essence”; In a modern verse, “Instagram is rūpa—curated faces hiding fluid selves”; A minimalist lyric: “Rūpa: the first link in the chain of suffering”; A meditation reflection: “See rūpa—don’t cling.”
Additional Notes
Rupa, meaning "form" or "materiality," is the first of the Five Aggregates (Skandhas) that constitute a person in Buddhist philosophy. It includes the four great elements (earth/solidity, water/cohesion, fire/heat, air/motion) and derived material forms (the physical senses and their objects). Understanding that the body and all matter are merely a transient, impersonal aggregate is key to realizing non-self (Anatta) and overcoming attachment.
Also Known As
Form Material Form
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