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



On 29 July in poetry and history

Poets born or who died on this date, plus historical events that happened on this day across history.

610 poets with calendar dates · 6,535 events with calendar dates in the catalogue

1 birthday · 2 death anniversaries · 4 world events on 29 July

Birthdays

Death anniversaries

World events on this day

  • 29 July 1588

    The Spanish Armada Defeated by English Fleet and Storms

    In the summer of 1588, the Spanish Armada — a fleet of 130 ships sent by Philip II of Spain from Lisbon, Portugal, to invade Protestant England — was driven off by the English fleet under Lord Howard and Francis Drake in the English Channel, then devastated by a series of violent Atlantic storms as it attempted to return to Spain by sailing around the north of Scotland and west of Ireland. Approximately 44 of the 130 ships were lost to storms, with thousands of men drowned or slaughtered when they landed on Irish shores. Protestant England interpreted the storms as providential wind — Flavit Deus et dissipati sunt ('God blew and they were scattered') — a phrase embossed on commemorative medals.

  • 29 July 1014

    Battle of Kleidion weakens the First Bulgarian Empire

    The Battle of Kleidion in 1014 was a decisive Byzantine victory over the First Bulgarian Empire. It formed part of the long struggle between Byzantium and Bulgaria for control of the Balkans. The battle accelerated the collapse of Bulgarian independence and strengthened Byzantine political and religious influence in the region.

  • 29 July 1030

    Battle of Stiklestad becomes a Norwegian memory site

    The Battle of Stiklestad was fought in Norway in 1030 and resulted in the death of Olaf Haraldsson. Although a political defeat for Olaf, later tradition transformed him into Saint Olaf. The battle became a central episode in Norway's Christianisation and royal identity.

  • 29 July 1878

    The Western Frontier Eclipse

    A total solar eclipse cut a path directly across the rugged Western territories of the United States, drawing top-tier American scientists to observation camps in Rawlins, Wyoming. Among them, the pioneering astronomer Maria Mitchell led an all-female scientific expedition to prove women's capability in academic research, while Thomas Edison tested his newly invented tasimeter to measure solar heat. The event was highly publicized, demonstrating the rapid expansion of American technological infrastructure into the frontier wilderness.

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