The Onward Song is poet K.J. Paradis's stunning debut collection—six dozen exquisitely crafted poems that are at once classical and wonderfully contemporary, poems made remarkable by their effortless musicality and unexpected metaphors. Paradis crafts verse that celebrates old boots, sharp pencils, first kisses, freckled constellations, the complex pleasures of a daughter's dance recital, and much more. A lawyer, entrepreneur, jazz musician, and a devoted student of the classics, Paradis's work also limns the lives and passions of luminaries like Einstein and van Gogh, Gertude Stein and Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Hopper and Dave Brubeck. Often brief yet always deeply evocative, these are poems that are tender and mysterious, laced with curiosity and feeling, and they can also be a bit irreverent. A major new talent emerges in these pages, and The Onward Song is a collection of gems that often delight, sometimes surprise, and always amaze, poems as expansive as they are precise and delicate.