Responsibility to Awe Poems

This collection demonstrates Rebecca Elson's ability to trace space through poetry. Through her work as an astronomer, Elson redefined her understanding of known human forces such as hope, fear, love, and hunger. The resulting poems make inferences an speculate, setting out always from meticulous observation and making it possible to understand how space curves, how individuals create universes of their own, and how there is much more to experience than perceptions allow. This work includes extracts from her notebooks as well as an autobiographical essay.