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簡介intro：
詞句和意念，在自行成形、融化、聚集和調整，此起彼落。然而，每首詩保持不變的，是在個別意念冒出來之前響起了的節奏，節奏隨著意念的成形而加劇。而當這節奏退減以至於消失，一首詩就如此這樣完成了。這樣的創作活動令人感到神秘，卻是從我們的日常生活濾出的個人體驗。《Metaflora》輯錄了26首Michael Holland的詩作，喚起了作創作歷程的奇異記憶。
重構任何精神活動，都屬於一種創作行為，因而不可能完全複製。《Metaflora》的諸種聯想，可視之為某種飄忽的經驗，但不少實驗結果告訴我們： 屬於神經系統編碼的聯想網絡，可以隨著時間日益壯大，而且可以事後回溯。本質上，詩歌的工具─想像、聲音、韻腳、節奏和修辭手法─也同時是回憶者的工具，而無論對讀者抑或作者而言，詩歌本身就是一種回憶的方式。
We are all subject to the myth of the body: two legs, two arms and a head, and somehow we’re all similar. But human memory and psychophysiology ensure that we remain unsettlingly different from each other. In emphasizing the how of experience, Michael Holland’s poems and designs in Metaflora allow fresh ways of seeing ourselves and others. Each poem of Metaflora is accompanied by a special design that offers insight into evolving ideas. Here various kinds of amendment, reflection and association are gathered into the equivalent of film clips glimpsing words before they settled in poetry’s neater lines.
關於作者about the author：
Michael Holland十一歲便開始寫詩，《Metaflora》表達了Michael的兩種情感─詩歌和意念的意念。關於前者，這本在香港寫成的詩集，探討了回憶、身份認同、語言和美的轉化。關於後者，Michael細緻的圖式向讀者顯露詩歌的創作意念，可追溯到他在悉尼大學所鑽研的行為科學。Michael曾擔任澳洲Heinemann的字典編輯，目前與妻子及女兒居於香港。
Metaflora is two of Michael’s passions – poetry and ideas about ideas. As to the former, the poems in this collection were written in Hong Kong over a period of eight years and concern memory, identity, language and writing, and the transforming effects of beauty. As to the latter, Michael’s detailed schematics, which have been rendered into design by Sherene Poon, continue his interest in giving visual form to abstractions. Michael’s ideas for Metaflora were influenced by his studies in behavioural science for which he received the University of Sydney’s Dennis McIntyre Memorial Prize in 2008. Michael lives in Hong Kong with his wife, Anita, and their daughter, Amelia.
