A Touching Finish

A Touching Finish – A Poem by Larry Eickstaedt

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only in this meeting that a new world is born. – Anais Nin

As my fingers glide across
the surface of the new sculpture,
my mind slides back to the silky smoothness
of wooden stanchions in that Iowa barn
where I spent so many hours crouched
on a milking stool.

The stanchions’ highly polished wood
came about like an afterthought.
Twice a day, the cows rubbed their necks
up and down as they ate grain and hay
in mangers, smoothing the wood
while leaving their bodily oils.

The highly tactile skin of the sculptor’s marble
was produced through conscious effort
employing successively finer sanding,
steel wool and buffed wax polish.
What took the sculptor a matter of days,
the cows matched over a span of years.

Like the actions of cows,
strong, lasting friendships are sculpted
by small, repetitive acts of grace,
taken without forethought,
built in increments too small to measure,
allowed to gain luster slowly, over time.

—

A fixture in the South Puget Sound arts and conservation communities, Larry Eickstaedt was a man who deeply understood the world around him—whether teaching at Evergreen, advocating for local land trusts, or sharing his voice at poetry readings. We share this piece from his book of poems, Fragments, in gratitude for the beauty, wisdom, and fellowship he brought to our lives.

Larry Eickstaedt July 20, 1939 – April 17, 2026