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


1843

Event dated 1 December 1843

Culture Economy Technology

First Commercial Christmas Card Commissioned

Poet involved

What happened

In 1843, Sir Henry Cole commissioned one of the first commercial Christmas cards, marking the beginning of a new seasonal consumer tradition. This initiative helped popularize the practice of sending holiday greetings, transforming Christmas into a more commercialized and widely celebrated occasion. The card's success paved the way for the modern greeting card industry, influencing how people connect and share sentiments during the festive season.

Literary impact

The commissioning of the first commercial Christmas card in 1843 connected print and sentiment, influencing poets like Christina Rossetti and Robert Louis Stevenson to explore themes of family and seasonal joy. This cultural phenomenon reinforced the Victorian tradition of domestic poetry.

Source: Wikipedia

Poets alive in 1843

157 poets

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