Lobster for Sale by Tim Seibles

In this video, Seibles begins by talking to the audience about the two different ways you can perceive this poem. You can take it literally, or not literally. Seibles reads the poem with a fluid, calming voice, offering a reflective feeling to it. This really furthers the listeners ability to understand the poem, because he reads it as if it needs to be thought about. Each word is slow and concise, and it offers an alternate perspective than the one we usually take about caged animals. Usually people assume the animals to be miserable, but Seibles takes on the voice of a lobster very well; this is all he knows. The slowness and tone of this spoken poem really reflects the life of a lobster in a tank, it's slow and all he can do is sit there and think and "measure the sides of the glass." Seibles offers an interesting and refreshing perspective on a bored animal and the way he performs it greatly impacts the way it is perceived.