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



Yagna

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

A Vedic sacrificial rite involving offerings to deities through fire, symbolizing cosmic order and mutual obligation.

Detailed Definition
Yagna represents the principle of reciprocal giving—humans offer to gods, who sustain the world. Beyond ritual, it symbolizes selfless action (as in the Gita: “yajna artham karma”). In poetry, yagna appears in creation myths (Purusha Sukta), royal consecrations, and ethical teachings. Poets contrast true yagna—performed with devotion and detachment—with empty ritualism. It becomes a metaphor for life as offering: work, love, and thought dedicated to a higher purpose, sustaining both society and the soul.
Example
Example in poetry:
Poets describe sacred ritual through "the yagna fire consuming offerings, smoke carrying prayers skyward"; In vedic-inspired verse, "priests circle the yagna, chanting mantras older than memory"; A contemporary poem explores "the yagna's flames like hungry gods accepting ghee and grain"; Traditional poetry captures "at dawn we gathered for the yagna, feeding Agni with sacred wood"; A poet reflecting on ceremony writes "the yagna transforms matter into blessing, the visible into invisible"; Mythological poetry depicts "the great yagna where Daksha failed to invite Shiva, sparking cosmic fury"
Additional Notes
A Yagna (or Yajna) is a Vedic fire sacrifice, a central ritual in ancient Hinduism where offerings like clarified butter (ghee), grains, and soma are made into a sacred fire (Agni) to nourish the gods (Devas), who in turn maintain cosmic order (Rta). It symbolizes a cosmic reciprocity. The ritual is performed by priests (Brahmins) with precise chanting of mantras. For poets, the Yagna is a powerful archetype of offering, transformation (as materials are consumed by fire), and the sustenance of the universe through sacred action. It represents the idea of the cosmos as a great, ongoing sacrifice.
Also Known As
Yajna Yagam Sacrificial Ritual
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