Conditional Future Perfect: Poems

by Dan Curley, S.L. Johnson (Illustrator), John Cassels (Foreword)

Conditional Future Perfect, Dan Curley’s first book of poetry, is richly comic and subtly serious. The forty-eight poems in this volume invite us to share the daily wonders and blunders of family life, the ephemeral feelings and lasting lessons of travel (in Italy, mostly Rome), and a range of elegies and other life stories that take us outside of ourselves. In poem after poem, Curley is thoughtful, conversational, and witty. This is accessible poetry of the everyday that nevertheless lifts us to the heights of comprehension, revealing our inevitable follies and essential dignity.

96 pages, paperback

Published September 4, 2019

Reviews

[Dan Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having heard Dan Curley read a number of the poems in this book at a Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center in Albany, NY, & at open mics I will say that his poetry is "accessible" -- but deceptively so. The poems are like Billy Collins, but without the dog, & with a classical education & a more humble demeanor. Or rather, in the book it is his wife who has the (fantasy) dog. It is great fun even without a classical dictionary handy for the Roman poems in the middle section. & if you ever wanted to know what the "conditional future perfect" is, read the poem.