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 Z

zodiacal schema

Structure
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 structural or thematic framework in poetry based on the twelve signs of the zodiac

Detailed Definition
A zodiacal schema is a structural or thematic framework in which a poem or poetic sequence is organized according to the twelve signs of the zodiac—chronologically, symbolically, or elementally—using each sign as a lens for exploring human experience, seasonal cycles, or cosmic order. This macro-structure appears in medieval cosmological poems, modern long-form works, and ritual verse. It invites interdisciplinary engagement with mythology, astronomy, and psychology. For students, composing within a zodiacal schema challenges them to balance thematic unity with the diversity of archetypal energies across the signs.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dante’s “Divine Comedy” structures the cosmos using medieval zodiacal schema aligned with theological hierarchy; Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” opens with Aries (March) setting the pilgrimage’s zodiacal start; Shakespeare’s “King Lear” references zodiacal disorder (“These late eclipses in the sun and moon”) to mirror political chaos; John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” maps Eden’s seasons through zodiacal progression; W.B. Yeats’s “A Vision” builds a complex zodiacal schema of historical cycles; Hesiod’s “Works and Days” uses zodiac signs to time agricultural labor
Additional Notes
A zodiacal schema is a macro-structural framework where a poem or sequence is organized according to the twelve zodiac signs—chronologically, thematically, or symbolically. Each section may embody a sign’s element (fire, earth, air, water), season, or myth. Examples include full-length works like David Whyte’s zodiacal meditations or medieval cosmological poems. This schema invites interdisciplinary study (astronomy, mythology, psychology) and challenges poets to sustain thematic unity across diversity. Professors can use it to teach poetic architecture and cyclical form. Note: differs from mere zodiac references by its systematic, scaffolding role in composition.
Also Known As
Zodiacal framework celestial structure astrological blueprint twelve-sign poetic schema Celestial schema
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