4. Rae Armantrout, "Almost"

The ideas are compelling: "Almost all the words we've said to one another are gone / and if they were retrieved, verbatim, we might not recognize them." I find the expression flat, though. This sounds like someone's desultory paraphrase of an interesting poem. The second section is better expressed. I've seen the billboard myself "showing the product / tiny, / in one corner." I like understated poetry, that doesn't necessarily call attention to its own artfulness, in the Williams, Bromige, Creeley mode, but this particular poem, from a poet I admire, doesn't make it. 6.5 out of 10.