Zoopoetics : Animals and the Making of Poetry Zoopoetics assumes Aristotle was right. The general origin of poetry resides in part in the instinct to imitate. But it is an innovative imitation. An exploration of the oeuvres of Walt Whitman E. E. Cummings W. S. Merwin and Brenda Hillman reveals the many places where an imitation of another species poiesis (Greek makings) contributes to breakthroughs in poetic form. However humans are not the only imitators in the animal kingdom. Other species too achieve breakthroughs in their makings through an attentiveness to the ways of being of other animals. For this reason mimic octopi elephants beluga whales and many other species join the exploration of what zoopoetics encompasses. Zoopoetics provides further traction for people interested in the possibilities when and where species meet. Gestures are paramount to zoopoetics. Through the interplay of gestures the human animal textual spheres merge making it possible to recognize how actual biological animals impact the material makings of poetry. Moreover as many species are makers zoopoetics expands the poetic tradition to include nonhuman poiesis. Zoopoetics exposes the continuity of poiesis across human animal spheres. It contributes new ways of seeing animals within the poetic tradition and beyond.