Pictured here are three of Nobel Prize-winning poet Tomas Transtromer’s “Six Winters,” framed by a dying mammoth sculpture at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.
Below are the poem’s final three winters. Out of the six, number five is my favorite.
IV.
Ice hangs down the edge of the roof.
Icicles: the upside down Gothic.
Abstract cattle, glass udders.
V.
An empty railroad car on a spur.
Calm. Heraldic.
With the journey in its claws.
VI.
Snow flurries tonight, moonlight. The moonlight
jellyfish itself floats before us. Our smiles
on the way home. Bewitched avenue.
Read Los Angeles, 2013
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