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.

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


1700

Culture Technology

Champagne Region Sparkling Experiments Extended to Cakes

What happened

Around 1700, techniques for producing sparkling wine were being developed and refined in the Champagne region of France, drawing on advances in glassmaking and cork technology. The luxury associations of champagne spread more broadly into festive culture, influencing elaborate pastry and confectionery traditions at aristocratic tables. These culinary developments reflect the interconnected histories of craftsmanship, taste, and celebration in early modern Europe.

Literary impact

The extension of sparkling experiments in the Champagne region to cakes in 1700 added effervescence metaphors to celebratory poetry. Poets began to use the imagery of bubbles and celebration to explore themes of joy and fleeting moments in life, often intertwining culinary delights with emotional experiences.

Source: Wikipedia

Poets alive in 1700

24 poets

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