Liminal Window
The Poetics of Appetite
A Practice-Based Investigation of Language in an Ice Cream Menu
Author: Jaiden Hordosillo
Publication Date: June 5, 2026
ISSN: 3071-1932
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20562133
Abstract
This study examines the linguistic strategies employed within a successful commercial ice cream menu and investigates the extent to which poetic mechanisms contribute to perceptions of desirability, appetite, and consumer engagement. Through close reading and the creation of a found poem composed exclusively from menu language, the study explores sound patterning, lexical selection, imagery, and syntactic compression. Findings suggest that the menu relies heavily upon poetic devices typically associated with literary writing, despite functioning primarily as a commercial document.
Research Paper
Experiment Conclusion
Summer Sundae
Confetti cherries
with birthday berries,
and a buttercream brownie
with sweet house honey,
with the darkest
brambleberry
sugarcookie
cream,
in a
burnt butter cone in candy green
Findings
When I founded Liminal Window, I thought I was creating a place to publish research papers about poetry.
The idea seemed straightforward enough. Find examples of poetic language in everyday life, examine them closely, document the findings, and publish the results. The first paper, The Poetics of Appetite, investigated the language of an ice cream menu and argued that many of the same mechanisms used by poets—compression, imagery, sound patterning, and sensory suggestion—also appear in commercial writing.
At the time, the paper felt like the destination. The publication existed so the research could be published. Over time, however, I began noticing something unexpected. People rarely asked me about the methodology. They rarely asked about the findings. Instead, they asked questions about the process.
Why an ice cream menu?
How did you come up with that idea?
What made you think to investigate something like that?
The more I reflected on those questions, the more I realized that the research itself might not be the most interesting part of the project. The experiment was. The paper was merely the record.
For much of my life, I have been interested in poetry not as a genre, but as a mechanism. Poetry appears everywhere. It appears in advertisements, speeches, menus, storefront signs, conversations, social media posts, and political slogans. The tools remain largely the same regardless of where they are found. Sound creates memory. Compression creates impact. Imagery creates association. Rhythm creates expectation.
Poets do not own these tools. They simply use them intentionally. This realization gradually changed how I viewed Liminal Window. What if the publication was not a journal of conclusions? What if it was a journal of investigations? The distinction may seem small, but it changes everything. A traditional literary journal publishes poems.
But can a menu be poetry?
Yes. I believe it can.
The investigation revealed that commercial writing frequently employs the same techniques associated with literary expression. Compression, sound patterning, sensory imagery, and emotional suggestion appeared throughout the menu despite its primary purpose being the sale of a product.
The experiment succeeded not because it produced a definitive answer, but because it revealed something worth noticing.
Poetry is not confined to books.
It is not confined to classrooms.
It is not confined to journals.
Poetry is a way of organizing language.
Wherever language exists, poetry remains possible. Liminal Window exists to investigate that possibility. Not by making grand declarations about what poetry is. But by asking increasingly unusual questions about where it can be found.
The answers matter.
But the questions matter much more.*
Access
Citation
Hordosillo, J. (2026). The Poetics of Appetite: A Practice-Based Investigation of Language in an Ice Cream Menu. In Liminal Window: Studies in Everyday Poetics (p. 001). Jaiden Hordosillo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20562133
