Caroline Giles Banks
Sticks and Stones
In its March 2025 quarterly update the Oxford English Dictionary added 42 new words from other languages. The words do not have English equivalents. The list includes gigil from the Philippines, an intense feeling when seeing someone or something cute; blaa, from Irish English, a soft white-floured bread associated with Waterford, Ireland; and alamak, a Malaysian word expressing shock or outrage.
Simultaneously, hundreds of English words and phrases disappeared from U.S. Government documents. Many words erased from these documents relate to D.E.I. and transgender issues and initiatives. Forbidden words include: race, trans, intersectional, Indigenous, tribal, ethnicity, activism, gender, pronoun, sociocultural, Black, female, disabled, and ally.
Where do these red strike-through words go?
Hide N Seek
woke words
doze under the tongue
About the Author
Caroline Giles Banks, born in Boston, Massachusetts, is a cultural anthropologist whose poetry is often informed by her anthropological training and research. She is the author of six poetry books, including The Clay Jar: Haiku, Senryu and Haibun Poems, The Weight of Whiteness: A Memoir in Poetry, and Picture a Poem: Ekphrastic and Other Poems. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This is wonderful. Thank you for writing such a powerful haibun! Wow!
In words begins reality. Thank you for writing this important piece.
Powerful, thought provoking, and necessary.