When first drafting any piece of literature there is always revisions to make, just as Alvarez’s “Sometimes the Words Are So Close” was thoroughly revised. The poem itself shares to us readers how Alvarez holds the English language so close to her as a form to express herself. In a way, she explains how when writing her life experiences, they also come to life and she feels liberated. She feels that she can write anything down on paper and not be judged by anyone. She states how when writing a poem she feels as if she is writing the truth and every line holds a different emotion or life event. These emotions that anyone could understand even a child, like herself when she began writing. Therefore, she asks the question to us readers, why is it so difficult for her to live through her life that she is writing for us to read? Maybe for her writing is an escape or pause from reality. A moment in which she can relax and thoroughly rethink or relive her life events. For her, words are so close to her heart that they can bring peace and she would rather write them down than live through the events. This is something that a lot of people deal with, the anxiety and stress of life, so they find an escape.
Through Alvarez’s earlier drafts of the poem, for me, it has enhanced the meaning that she is trying for us readers to understand. In the last five lines of her poem, she speaks to us readers who want to follow the same path and feel words close to us. She states how she was once also in drafts as us, which is why her earlier drafts are so important because she shows us the reader’s actual evidence. Evidence that she too also drafts her poems and that they’re not perfect the first time. Yet, the word draft almost holds a symbolism for something else. The word drafts almost mean a rough time in one’s life. Therefore, she encourages future poets to not get discouraged and to continue their journey with the English language. She then states that through this poem we revive her emotions briefly and by briefly understanding her emotions we touch her. Hence, she states that she too was attempting to discover her potential in writing but was challenged with identifying her voice. Through these last two lines, she encourages the readers who are undergoing the same difficulties as her to take reassurance from her works. Through the poem drafts, she depicts a situation in which she is discovering her voice as an individual.
~Jeshua Rocha