The Incurable Romantic: Colleen Burke

Colleen was raised in Bondi, New South Wales, amid post World War II working-class, Irish-Catholic beliefs. She immersed herself in reading to escape a problematic childhood and left school at 15, becoming a shorthand typist as she pursued further education, both formal and informal. During the confrontational yet stimulating Sixties, she became intrigued by a broader political sphere and the poetry, literature and folk music which expressed the frustration of the young against injustice, racism, easy popular sentiment, commercialised American music and - of course - the Vietnam War. Feminism leavened with socialism made sense of her contradictory world. During these turbulent, heady times, Colleen met and formed a relationship with her future husband, folk singer and musician, Declan Affley. This volume of her poetry was released in 1979.