I read the poem a few times, let it sink in. I found it very accessable in both real and artistic ways. What disturbed me was reading the comments in the forum that detailed the influences and references to Yeats and others. I wonder if any of the recently published authors here on Slate are capable of original prose. Does everything have to be so...plageristic? I know it's not exactly plagerism, but learning about the references, images, and even words lifted in this poem somehow detracts from my overall enjoyment of the piece - which I actually like and enjoyed reading. There I've said it, now I'm off my soapbox.

I see the tower more like a fortress of contentious spite rather than as a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment. The 'gong' sounds causing a stir of activity - the bristle of wings, whistling wind - drawing the author back to awareness of the inner conflicts that trouble and plague her. Thoughts whistling through the cracks in her mind allowing in thoughts she sought to hold at bay with monk-like disipline. She's arguing with herself, playing devils advocate with her own thoughts.

Why have I chosen to live this way? I make my life harder than it needs to be. This is reflected in everything she contemplates after "I heard you call to me:" stated directly as a longing to come back to the simple life. It's even possible to hold the moon by simply cutting a branch from the sycamore. This even as she must acknowledge whatever hurt she experienced was due to the unintentional fact of human-ness.

Then she takes on the other side of the conflict - I don't blame you, whoever that is (perhaps the grand 'you' or all the 'you's' in her life) because I made my own choices, decided to go with 'what if?' ("with suppose as the friend I turn to") rather than make a commitment. Rather than choose a side.

Finally, she realizes what the fruits of her decisions have brought her. "The bird left me. The gong was gone."

The last sentence I interpret as hopeful, as her decision to change the course of her life. "I opened my door to the wild stairs." I find the key to my interpretation the use of 'my' in that sentence as well as 'me' in "The bird left me."

In those last three sentences, she brings it home - so to speak. It becomes personal and emotional. My choices have left me not only alone, but lonely. I don't like it and I need to change. I'm going to risk my heart again.

It is a more interesting way to address the cliche' 'It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all'.