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 T

Transcendental

Philosophy
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

Transcendental refers to a philosophy that investigates the conditions of possibility of experience. It is an inquiry into how knowledge is possible, not its content.

Detailed Definition
Kant's transcendental philosophy is a critique of pure reason. In poetry, it appears as a mode of introspection that seeks the structures of mind and experience. A transcendental poem might question how we know what we know. This concept gives poetry a philosophical depth, making it a means to explore the very foundations of thought and perception, pushing beyond surface appearances.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem that asks "How do I know what I know?" is a transcendental inquiry; The investigation of the conditions of perception in a poem by Wordsworth is transcendental; A poet's attempt to go beyond the appearance of things to their essence is a transcendental act; The philosophical poetry of Wallace Stevens often operates on a transcendental level, questioning the nature of reality and perception.
Additional Notes
Transcendental philosophy, particularly as articulated by Immanuel Kant, is a method of inquiry that does not focus on the objects of knowledge themselves, but rather on the conditions of their possibility. It is a philosophy that asks "What are the necessary conditions for experience and knowledge?" It investigates the a priori structures of the mind that make experience possible. In poetry, a "transcendental" poem might be one that reflects on the act of perception itself, questioning how we know what we know. A poet like Wallace Stevens, who explores the relationship between the mind and the world, can be said to write transcendental poetry. This concept gives poetry a profound, self-reflective depth.
Other Meanings of “Transcendental”
Also Known As
Transcendental philosophy Critical philosophy A priori inquiry
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