In the Name of Love 以愛之名

「愛情最美的樣子，也許不是它的雋永，而是你經歷了滿地風霜，仍然願意在心底為他/她保留一席之地。你也許懷念愛情的浪漫，也許曾經歷不能言喻的失望，也許藏着說不出的遺憾，但你曾所留戀的片刻，也就成了永恆。」
新晉作家李嘉文，以英文詩歌的方式把愛情的各種樣子一一描繪出來。

該詩集把愛分為三部曲，是三種不同程度的愛。新書邀請了澳門字體設計學會鄧寶誼先生設計字型。鄧寶誼先生透過數碼字體科技，修復、編碼和擴充不同時期的澳門歷史文字。第一個章節使用的內文字體來自於澳門市政廳中的一塊 1940 年的石碑；第二章節的英式圓體來自於《澳門仁慈堂章程》的首頁手抄原件；第三章節的字體來自 1588 年天主教神父使用鉛活字在澳門印刷的中國第一本拉丁文書籍《CHRISTIANI PUERI
INSTITUTIO》。因此，這本詩集不僅僅是藝術家英文詩歌的展現，亦是古文字活用的最佳示範。
◎代理經銷：白象文化

◎李嘉文，兼職大學講師，全職中學英語教師，英國文學愛好者，藝術創作者。她是香港浸會大學傳理學文學碩士生，鍾情於英文詩歌及抽象畫藝術創作。她的攝影作品曾在香港藝術公社《New Trend 2008》展出，其實驗性短片也曾參與由廣州美術學院舉辦的聯展。踏足教育界後，她帶領學生自發創作過百首英文詩歌，彙編成詩集《The Sound of Words》並出版。她希望透過藝術創作幫助學生表達自己，呈現她們的獨特性。她於2022年6月4日至28日期間，假澳門望廈山房舉辦『以愛之名』李嘉文個人詩畫展及 In the Name of Love 新書發佈會。
她喜歡探討時間、空間和人的聯繫脈絡。她喜歡孤獨感，但不喜歡無力感；她喜歡追隨大眾，但不喜歡隨波逐流；她喜歡把每一秒的時間都運用到極致，但不喜歡被工作束縛；她在光明處很自信，暗地裏卻很自卑；她的愛很從容，但同時她也愛得很狼狽。她的詩歌創作和畫作處處都呈現著她在愛情和人生中的矛盾。

◎ Prof. Chiu Man Yin, Department of English, University of Macau
The linguist H.G. Widdowson once said provocatively that the value of poetry lies in its very uselessness. Although poetry serves no practical purpose, it has great value. Poetry is the means by which we express our deepest feelings and most unique insights. Poetry is the language of the soul.

One engages in the act of writing poetry for all sorts of reasons but never, I am convinced, for profit. One writes because one has something to say, impelled by some intuition or emotion to fashion out of ordinary language a unique and personal verbal artefact.

The poems in this collection are a labour of love. They were written for no other purpose than to articulate a particular view of life. Together these poems express a poignant and penetrating consciousness engaging with the world that we all share. In these pages, the mundane fabric of everyday life is rendered in fresh and delightful vignettes. Every syllable radiates pure enjoyment of life. The little tippler is, oh so clearly here, leaning against the sun.

There is a common tendency to seek enlightenment and meaning in poetry. Such an urge, in my view, should be resisted. A poem should be enjoyed organically. The cadence of the lines, the arrangement of syllables are assembled in a unique order that fuses with the semantics of the collocations. A poem is a globed fruit, as Archibald Macleish says. Enjoy it whole.

◎ Miranda Sin I MA, President, Macao Association for the Advancement of English
Language Teaching

Just like her paintings, Lei Ka Man’s poems pop. Her words explode like fireworks, sparkle like stardust, and finally touch your heart. Her poems are a window that takes you to her world, a world filled with sentiments, adventures, and surprises. In this world, you sometimes smile, but you also sometimes cry. Ka Man’s world is not only made up of words, but also powerful colors and textures, as well as imagination and dreams. Reading Ka Man’s poems always makes me feel like I am talking with her. Her use of “I, you, we” is how she converses with her readers. I appreciate how Ka Man’s collection is full of contradictions about life because as most of us can relate - life is alluring because it can sometimes get contradictory. We may all experience and interpret Ka Man’s world differently, and I cannot wait for you to join me on this wonderful ride.

◎ I was born to write.

◎ In the Name of Love

The First Name: Mania
Lies ---- 18
Let Me ----19
Cutters & Sawblades ----20
I Wish I Could ----21
A Jar Of Heart ----22
Bury ----23
Membrane ----24
The Rusty Book ----25
Frustration ----26
Dribs & Drabs ----27
Pain ----28
The Coin ----29
The Long Escape ----30
Our Song ----31
Enough ----32
Ribbon ----33
Devil ----34
Haunted ----35
Secret ----36
The Love You Give ----37
The 14th Chapter ----38
Trash ----39
Split ----40
Empty ----41
The Mountaintop ----42
Here To ----43
I Fight ----44
In Vain ----45
The Weapon ----46
Kill-time Therapy ----47
Cry A Little ----48
Odd ----49
Only If ----50
Scrawl ----51
All Alone ----52
Into The Night ----53
Very Much On Time ----54
The Withered Rose ----55
She ----56
Falling ----57
Maybe Not ----58
Screw ----59
It Hurts ----60
The Solution ----61
Sin ----62
Here & There ----63
Tears Of Nowhere ----64
Toss & Turn ----65
Falling Steps ----66
The Forlorn Cold ----67
The Lone Air ----68
The End ----69

The Middle Name: Eros
Once ----74
Fragrance ----75
I Think Of You ----76
Morning Blue ----77
Insomnia ----78
Rain ----79
Longing For ----80
The East & The West ----81
Kotor Heart ----82
Road Trip ----83
The Blood Moon ----84
More Than December ----85
Fill Me ----86
The Ferris Wheel ----87
Give You Poetry ----88
So Poetry ----89
Right ----90
The Wrong Hug ----91
Mosaic ----92
Perfect Pitch ----93
Breath ----96
More & More ----97
Lost ----98
A Crying Shadow ----99
Under The Shade ----100
Secretly In Love ----101
A Love Letter ----102
Good Night ----103
Drug ----104
Upside Down ----105
Quit ----106
Press Against ----107
Kisses ----108
Scent ----109
Touch ----110
Blueprint ----111
Linger ----112
Will You (Verse I) ----113
Will You (Verse II) ----114
Will You (Verse III) ----115
The Manifest ----116
The Figment ----117
The Haunting Night ----118
A Lifetime A Day ----119

The Last Name: Pragma
// You are the reason I write // ----127
// You are the reason I fall // --- All In Or Nothing ----128
// You are the reason I await // ----129
// You are the reason I dare // ----130
// You are the reason I glitter // --- Give You A Sunset ----131
// You are the reason I cherish // ----132
// You are the reason I rise // ----133
// You are the reason I drown // ----134
// You are the reason I seek // ----135
I Will Know You Once Again ----136
Timing Knows No Love ----137
Keep Waiting ----138
Don’t Want You To See Me Weep ----139
In the Ends of the Earth ----140

◎ The First Name: Mania

Pain

Pain is 

Losing your own dignity
Crying your heart out
Searching your own identity
Revealing your inner secrets
Forcing to be assimilated
Showing a mask to others 
Finding difficult to trust 
Saying a forever goodbye 
Seeing you leave

The Love You Give

The love you give is 

Beautifully torn
Previously lost
Entirely broken
Perfectly wrong
Kindly sinful
Gently painful
Warmly bitter

Yet
It is still softly loud
In my heart

Maybe Not 

Your smile is worth my thousand thoughts
No one can tell how, no one can tell why
I try to capture every part of you
But by bit, little by little 
You and I, maybe not
Our story is as brief as a song
Just as ridiculous when we look at each other
Sometimes, we exchange dreams at night
When the whole world falls asleep
No one is creeping, no one is talking 
Too many feelings and too much silence 
For my mind is filled with your existence 
You and I, maybe not
May not be

The Lone Air

I want to borrow your kiss
When the autumn wind blows
And find myself trembling with cold 

I mimic a looming caress 
Wiping my tears with rustling leaves
My face is tinged with reddish hue

I look no further 
But the moonlight shelter 
You are merely a nip in the air

◎ The Middle Name: Eros

So Poetry

You are so poetry
Touching the silence 
Seizing the dalliance
Gripping yet tearless
Longing yet callous
Off and on
You are more than a poetry
With all these literary memories

Under The Shade 

I want to make you a morning coffee
Though I can’t be your girl-to-be
You sit straight in front of me
But I’m too shy I just look at my knee
I understand in full your preference 
As I take your everything as reference 
You look cool when you walk past me 
With your afternoon earl grey tea 
Our eyes sometimes carelessly meet
And my heart starts a thousand beats
I envy those who befriend you
Always will I interrupt that’s so true 
It seems like you will not notice me
Being so dark and listless for you to see
But it’s fine for me to continue to pray
For I enjoy staying under the shade

Touch 
Phenomenal, it is phenomenal
To feel your touch at the arc
Of my shoulders in the dark 
It truly heals and it sparks 
Pondering where my secrets lie
They conquer all those goodbyes 
And love needs not a prompt reply 

Phenomenal, it is phenomenal 
To run my fingers on your cheeks
I can hardly find words to speak 
As your tenderness tastes so weak
Wondering where my secrets hide
They break into pieces and subside
When I feel so much about you inside

I can lose everything
But your touch


◎ The Last Name: Pragma

// You are the reason I fall //

All In Or Nothing

I’m all in for you
And nothing for me

I have lost all of me
To love all of you
I have risked all of me
To hold all of you

All in or nothing
It’s worth everything


// You are the reason I glitter //

Give You A Sunset

Your eyes ray out a sunset
Beaming with savoury delight
I reserve all the sun rays
And put them in a jar of love
I find sun shower in your glamour
It rotates round the horizon
Then to your waist and back
Our flame is still striking
From twilight into the dusk
I draw a full circle in your lips
Down to the surface and up again
Somehow and sometimes
I keep looking at the glitters
That I have missed the sunset
Yet I will spend my whole lifetime
To give you a thousand sunsets


// In the Ends of the Earth//

I will be yours
and I am yours
devoutly
fanatically
like the flowers
in the bloom of love