The argument Robert Hass is making is that poetry, like other forms of writing, is limited by the language in which it's written, and that sometimes it's important that we are aware of this situation.
Hass is making the point that poets normally try to convey through words experiences of another nature (visual, auditory, emotional). The limits of the written word force poets to equate two elements that might have no obvious link at first, therefore forcing the reader to make new connections and relations in his or her mind. By explaining scientifically why the tree does what it does, Hass goes to show that if poets were used to presenting facts in that manner, they would not have been able to cause the desired effect on the reader. Instead, by saying "the tree danced" the poet creates a vivid, clear image in the reader's mind.
Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will. This line represents the relation between the poet and the reader. This is the poet telling the reader to join him in his journey, to suspend disbelief and to take rhetoric moves for what they are: ways of using written words to communicate through images. Oh, I will is a willing reader that has accepted the poet's challenge and joins him in this literary dance floor.
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