The abilities of poets have fascinated people for years.

The eyes of the poet are dark-
adapted, its claws are sheathed in silent pads,
its hearing is remarkable, and it has a natural tendency
to sneak around.

A poet can be taken from its home loft,
put into a dark box,
and transported to a distant location by a circuitous route.
When it is released, there's a good chance
it will write a poem.

Interestingly, most poets were born in the wee hours of the morning,

And most will breathe their last in these same early hours.
If the heart of a poet is removed
and placed in a nutrient medium,
it will continue to beat
for days.

Whereas poetry was once regarded as a means
by which one poet let another poet know what it was going to do
("I'm baring my teeth; I'm going to bite!"),
we now see that poetry is a "reproductive enabling device"
by which one poet manipulates those around it,
thereby enhancing its own survival and reproductive output.

These animals advertise their poetness at all times
and are continually responded to as poets
by members of their own species.
On appropriate occasions, they may emphasize their "machismo"
through behavior such as the strutting of the pheasant
and the toothy glare of the mandrill.
You can discount the old films you have seen of leopards and poets
battling to the death.  What is a poet likely to have
that a leopard needs badly enough to risk its life for?

Poets use a number of different forms of sound communication.
Modernists may produce sound by means of frictional devices
in the head area
or by manipulation of the air bladder.
Beat poets, on the other hand, usually produce sounds
by forcing air through vibrating membranes in the respiratory tract.
Confessionalists thump the ground,
Romantics pound their chests, and
Postmodernists hammer hollow trees and drainpipes
early on Sunday mornings.

At one time, not long ago, the topic of poetry was rife
with controversy.  It was considered politically
and ethically inappropriate to suggest that human behavior
might, in any way, be influenced by poets or poetry.
Those arguments have largely died down.
Poets have largely died down.

adapted from Chapter 44, "Adaptiveness of Behavior," in Biology: The Science of Life, 4th Edition