Best poetry books of 2015

▪ “Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings,” by Joy Harjo (Norton). … She is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma and uses her heritage to prove poetry transcends despair.

▪ “Felicity,” by Mary Oliver (Penguin). …

▪ “How to Be Drawn,” by Terrance Hayes (Penguin). African-American legacies underpin this book that is as broad, deep and swift as the Mississippi. The poet’s online notes include songs, books, photographs, newspapers and videos.

▪ “The Last Two Seconds,” by Mary Jo Bang (Graywolf). …

▪ “Memories,” by Lang Leav (Andrews McMeel). …

▪ “My Secret Wars of 1984,” by Dennis Etzel Jr. (Blazevox). … He mixes 1984 texts from Marvel comics, Ronald Reagan, feminist writings and George Orwell.

▪ “Report to the Department of the Interior: Poems,” by Diane Glancy (University of New Mexico Press). Glancy’s versified history, or docu-poetry, stretches from the first Native American prison school to Red Lake Reservation shootings of 2005.

▪ “Scattered at Sea,” by Amy Gerstler (Penguin). … Gerstler shows what to do with gazillions of factoids accumulating in the age of the Internet. She collages them in exuberant verse scrapbooks.

▪ “A Small Story About the Sky,” by Alberto Rios (Copper Canyon Press). The first poet laureate of Arizona writes lyrical works about the Mexico-United States border. …

▪ “Twelve Clocks,” by Julie Sophia Paegle (University of Arizona Press). …

▪ “War of the Foxes,” by Richard Siken (Copper Canyon Press). …

/ The Kansas City Star