Pitching horseshoes

He eyes the stake, measuring time and space With the speed of light, and steps ahead Swinging his arm back like a pendulum Then forward, letting go when eye and mind Converge. The metal shoe rides the stream Of air in flat and lazy pirouettes And like a homing pigeon drops swiftly, Hooking U-shaped arms around the peg's waist And hugging it for a three-point landing. It's in the pitch, the casual approach, The challenge of careless grace belying The will to win; when each effortless toss Reckoned by distance, velocity, and height, Becomes the arch of triumph when landing right.