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 U

Ukiyo-e

Art
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 Japanese woodblock print tradition depicting the “floating world” of urban life and pleasure.

Detailed Definition
Ukiyo-e prints portrayed actors, courtesans, landscapes, travelers, wrestlers, and seasonal scenes with bold line, flattened space, and striking design. The term's “floating world” suggests both pleasure and impermanence. In poetry, ukiyo-e can inspire concise scenes of city life, transient beauty, and observed gesture. A poem shaped by this sensibility may frame a passing moment sharply while acknowledging the social systems and fleeting desires beneath its surface.
Example
Example in poetry:
A ukiyo-e-inspired poem may use crisp outlines, flat color, rain, bridges, waves, and scenes of everyday urban life; Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” can inspire a poem in which a towering wave frames small boats and human vulnerability; A poet can borrow the Japanese woodblock print’s selective viewpoint by describing a city only through a doorway, fan, or train window; A haiku-like poem about a courtesan, theater district, or sudden rain can evoke the “floating world” associated with ukiyo-e
Additional Notes
Ukiyo-e, literally associated with the “floating world”, flourished in Japan during the Edo period and depicted subjects including actors, courtesans, urban pleasures, landscapes, travel, famous places, and everyday life. Most famous examples are colour woodblock prints, though the term also encompasses painting. Artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige became enormously influential in Europe through Japonisme. Students should distinguish ukiyo-e as a cultural-artistic tradition from Japanese woodblock printing as a broader technique. Compare woodblock print, Edo culture, Hokusai, Hiroshige, kabuki, Japonisme, and print culture.
Also Known As
Japanese Woodblock Print Pictures of the Floating World
Skip to main content