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


Theme Timeline

Pick a theme and see how often it shows up across 50-year cohorts of V2Melody poets. Bars are normalised so small cohorts don't get drowned out by large ones.

Choose a theme

— none — world life love death beauty nature self social beloved desire memory divine spiritual heart grief power romantic suffering woman light soul dead body loss pain music wind philosophical voice landscape hope religious spring flowers sorrow children water faith bird lover rose silence mortality domestic presence childhood sound earth past consciousness truth dream women irish eyes flower garden mind rain lovers

“religious” across the centuries

Bar length = percentage of poems in that cohort whose critique surfaced this theme. Click an era to focus the poem list below.

pre-1500 0 / 30 BCE 0 / 12 1500s 0 / 12 1550s 1 / 93 1600s 6 / 183 1650s 0 / 60 1700s 2 / 36 1750s 11 / 165 1800s 16 / 699 1850s 41 / 966 1900s 17 / 1143 1950s 0 / 15

Sample poems · click an era above to focus

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
Available versions

If you prick us, do we not bleed?

by William Shakespeare · English

William Shakespeare portrait

c. 23 April 1564 - 23 April 1616 (~52)

Batter my heart, three-person'd God
Available versions

Batter my heart, three-person'd God

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

The Will
Available versions

The Will

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

Loves Exchange
Available versions

Loves Exchange

by John Donne · English

John Donne portrait

1572 - 31 March 1631 (~59)

What God is like to him I serve
Available versions

What God is like to him I serve

by Anne Bradstreet · English

Anne Bradstreet portrait

1612 - 16 September 1672 (~60)

To Roses in the Bosome of Castara
Available versions

To Roses in the Bosome of Castara

by William Habington · English

William Habington portrait

4 November 1605 - 30 November 1654 (~49)

The Child's Complaint
Available versions

The Child's Complaint

by Isaac Watts · English

Isaac Watts portrait

17 July 1674 - 25 November 1748 (~74)

The Lamb
Available versions

The Lamb

by William Blake · English

William Blake portrait

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

The Angel
Available versions

The Angel

by William Blake · English

William Blake portrait

28 November 1757 - 12 August 1827 (~70)

To the Poor
Available versions

To the Poor

by Anna Lætitia Barbauld · English

Anna Lætitia Barbauld portrait

20 June 1743 - 9 March 1825 (~82)

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