Originally posted 5/28/2010.

Tiro de cuerda —

Spanish for
the perfect tension
on a guitar string,
the strain
that frees its song.

Over time, tuning and
retuning to that pitch
will weaken the string,
and I have more than once
seen a player, rock god
or flamenco acolyte,
knowingly or not,

snap one
and keep playing,
finding a new course among those
remaining;

but I have never heard
a recording that included
that sound,
the sound of recovery,
the sound of getting past
certain disaster
without looking back — 

unless of course
I take into account
what it takes for any one
with a vision or song
to achieve their own
tiro de cuerda,
to stretch themselves
to their crying point,

then go one breath
beyond it.