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


1999

Event dated 21 March 1999

Exploration

First Non-Stop Circumnavigation by Balloon

What happened

On March 21, 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones completed the first non-stop circumnavigation of Earth by balloon in the Breitling Orbiter 3, landing in Egypt after 19 days and covering 45,755 kilometers. This historic achievement represented the culmination of centuries of balloon development and demonstrated the viability of long-duration lighter-than-air flight.

Literary impact

The balloon circumnavigation inspired millennial poetry exploring themes of global unity, environmental awareness, and human achievement at century's end. The 19-day journey viewing Earth continuously from above influenced literary treatments of planetary perspective and ecological consciousness, appearing in verses that connected this final great balloon achievement with emerging 21st-century concerns about global interconnectedness.

Source: Wikipedia

Poets alive in 1999

3 poets

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