Escape From the Planet Crouton - Wayne F. Burke

Wayne F. Burke was born in 1954 in a small manufacturing 

town in the North Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.His father, 

Edward, had been a sergeant in the Marine Corp before 

becoming manager of a Mobil Flying-A Gasoline station; his 

mother, Claire Burke nee Kelly, had worked in a textile mill 

before becoming a full-time housewife. Both of his parents 

died young: his mother at twenty-eight--at which time his 

father moved him and his three siblings to the home of the 

paternal grandparents. His father died at thirty-two. The four 

children were raised by the grandparents and an Uncle. The 

grandfather was owner and operator of BURKE’S INN, a 

generational business begun previous to the First World War. 

Wayne F. Burke attended public school, and after graduating 

from High School, three institutions of higher learning before 

graduating from Goddard College in 1979 (B.A. RUP). After 

graduation he traveled around the country, living in a variety 

of places and working at a variety of occupations (presently, 

he is employed as an LPN in a nursing home). In the late-

80’s he located himself in the central Vermont area and has 

remained since. He published mostly prose until 2013 when 

his first poetry collection was published. He was fifty-eight 

years old. ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET CROUTON is his 

7th published poetry collection. A book of short stories, titled 

TURMOIL ' Other Stories, is scheduled for publication by 

Adelaide Press in 2020.