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

Sumac

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 shrub or small tree with compound leaves, red fruit clusters, and brilliant autumn color, some species edible.

Detailed Definition
Sumac symbolizes splendor, autumn's glory, and things beautiful yet potentially irritating (poison sumac) in poetry. The spectacular red and orange autumn foliage represents season's climax. Staghorn sumac's fuzzy red fruit clusters persist through winter providing visual interest. In American landscape poetry, sumac marks woodland edges and provides dramatic color. Poets use sumac to represent autumn's intensity, beauty with potential danger (like poison ivy relative), and plants that save their best display for last, embodying culmination and fiery endings.
Example
Example in poetry:
Sumac's brilliant autumn color represents seasonal drama and native beauty; In North American poetry, sumac symbolizes fall's fiery display and roadside glory; The fuzzy red fruit clusters provide winter interest and wildlife food; Staghorn sumac's velvet branches evoke tactile imagery and antler-like forms; In indigenous poetry, sumac represents traditional uses (dye, medicine, beverage); The plant's ability to colonize disturbed areas creates metaphors for reclaiming damaged land
Additional Notes
Sumac, with its fiery autumn foliage and crimson fruit clusters, often symbolises transformation and seasonal intensity. Some species yield edible or medicinal products, while others are irritant, allowing poets to explore duality: nourishment and danger. Its dramatic colour change makes it effective in autumnal scenes, especially when evoking transience, maturity, or the blaze before decline.
Also Known As
Sumach
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