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 S

Solitaire

Birds
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 now-extinct flightless bird of the Mascarene Islands, related to the pigeon.

Detailed Definition
The solitaire appears in poetry as a symbol of extinction, lost worlds, and human-caused ecological grief. Its solitary nature and tragic demise evoke themes of isolation and irreversible loss. Poets use the solitaire to reflect on colonial exploitation, the fragility of island endemics, and the haunting silence left by vanished species. It serves as a poignant counterpoint to more common birds, embodying the weight of absence in the natural record.
Example
Example in poetry:
In extinction elegies, the solitaire (a flightless pigeon relative) symbolizes irreversible loss and the silence left by vanished species; Poets reference the solitaire’s solitary nature and tragic demise to explore themes of isolation and human-caused ecological grief; Its extinction on Rodrigues Island appears in postcolonial verse as a consequence of exploitation and invasive species; The solitaire’s large size and terrestrial habits inspire metaphors for grounded uniqueness now lost; Ecopoets use the solitaire as a counterpoint to surviving birds, embodying the weight of absence; Its story serves as a cautionary tale in conservation poetry about island endemism and vulnerability.
Additional Notes
Solitaire: Refers either to the extinct flightless bird of Mauritius (a tragic conservation symbol) or the reclusive thrush-like birds of the Americas (e.g., Townsend’s solitaire). Both evoke solitude, song in isolation, and ecological fragility. The name itself invites metaphor—ideal for poems about loneliness or lost voices.
Also Known As
Townsend’s Solitaire extinct Mauritius Solitaire Mockingbird (historically confused in early texts) Patience
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