14.5x16 cm, 20 pages, 250 gsm white Strata card cover, pale blue endpapers, hand-sewn with azure twist.  The cover image, Memoirs of Milk Bottles, Gold Tops 2003, is by Tina Lauren Vietmeier. (Used with the artist’s permission.) More of her work can be seen at www.tinalaurenvietmeier.com ISBN 1903090 47 4  Ordering Information See below for biographical note and extracts from VIVAS.. Click here to read a number of reviews of Mairéad Byrne's work. Click here to read an interview with Mairéad Byrne by                      Randolph Healy at the Read.me website

---

Biographical Note.

MAIRÉAD BYRNE immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1994 for reasons of poetry. Her collection NELSON & THE HURUBURU BIRD was published in 2003 by Wild Honey Press.

Recent and upcoming publications include two chapbooks, AN EDUCATED HEART (Palm Press 2005) and VIVAS (Wild Honey Press 2005), also poems in 5 AM, CONDUIT, DENVER QUARTERLY, THE DRUNKEN BOAT and VOLT.

Recent and upcoming readings include SoundEye International Poetry Festival, Providence DownCity Poetry Series, Zinc Bar Talk/Reading Series, Cúirt International Poetry Festival, and Belladonna* (New York).

She is the author of two plays, two books of interviews with Irish artists, a short book on James Joyce, and a lot of journalism in Ireland and the United States. She earned a PhD in Theory & Cultural Studies from Purdue University in 2001 and lives with her two daughters in Providence, Rhode Island, where she teaches poetry at Rhode Island School of Design.

---

from VIVAS

CHIASMUS

When you marry & divorce your dreams get mixed up. You wanted an over- stuffed leather living room set and next thing you know you’re heading an expedition to the South Pole and making a pretty good fist of it. There you are on top of the Ross Ice Shelf in the depths of winter hauling supplies to base camp enduring 25-mile winds and a record low of -64°F with a wind-chill equivalent of -2800°F, watching the sun come up on the horizon for the first time in months when it hits you right between your frost-rimed but piercing eyes: Wasn’t it X’s dream to lead an expedition to Antarctica? What am I doing here? How did this happen? How did I inherit his dream? Meanwhile X is in Cardi’s meditating on a handsome cognac top grain leather living room set with dark wood accent trim and dimpled plush back cushioned and sectioned vertically for style and comfort, wondering if it might perhaps be more pleasing in chocolate or burgundy, harvesting his own ecstasy.

---

SMALL SCULPTURE 1

On the couch the whole family sits

Strapped in with safety belts.

---

MILK BOTTLES

Heavy milk bottles with thick rolled lips a quarter of an inch thick

Milk bottles with raised writing

Milk bottles embossed with “Premier Dairies”

Milk bottles with orange foil caps

Milk bottles full of milk with cream stoles riding on white dresses

Milk bottles on steps with orange foil caps punctured by sparrows’ downward plunging beaks

Milk bottles full and empty

Milk bottles on the step gathering sun

Milk bottles with soapy bubbles carrying rainbows inside

Milk bottles with drops of condensation

The clank of milk bottles washed

Empty milk bottles on the step

---