Daily Image

04-01-2007
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The WSRT, fulfilling the responsibility to awe.

Submitter: Rob Millenaar
Description: We Astronomers

We astronomers are nomads,
Merchants, circus people,
All the earth our tent.

We are industrious.
We breed enthusiasms,
Honour our responsibility to awe.

But the universe has moved a long way off.
Sometimes, I confess,
Starlight seems too sharp,

And like the moon
I bend my face to the ground,
To the small patch where each foot falls,

Before it falls,
And I forget to ask questions,
And only count things.


Rebecca Elson
1960-1999

Rebecca Elson was a Canadian born astronomer working in England, when she lost her battle with cancer in '99. She left us a wonderful collection of poetry, in which she writes about her work in astronomy, her life and her battle with the disease.
Copyright: Rob Millenaar
 
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