Fun with Linguistics

We are currently studying phonetics in my Linguistics class, which has made me wonderfully aware of the types of sounds I use in my poetry. The class gave me the idea to write a poem using only fricative consonants (and the occasional glide or liquid). Fricatives are consonants that are formed by almost completely closing the vocal tract, leaving air to escape through a small gap (i.e. f, v, s, z, h, th as in thigh, th as in thy, and the s sound in measure). This turned out to be more difficult that I envisioned, and so this next composition is not really poetry (unless loosely defined); but hopefully it will at least be a fun read (especially out loud). I might also try to write a poem using only forward sounds (bilabial, labiodental, and dental consonants along with front vowels.) I think these will be good exercises in poetic sound use for future poems.

Fricative Fish Fillet 9/10/2011
the chef fries fish with flour,
fuses this with these or those,
his sauce froths, seethes, sizzles
as he sifts five full fifths of flavor
(saves half, hashes half)
through the haze of fizzes and hisses
as he chefs and shifts, he says "hush"
and finishes it.