‘Ex’ is the beginning

By Barbara Simmons

PROMPT — The way I see it ...

of all the words I’m associating with this new year:

the exact word for what I’m feeling about 2026

excludes expectations of all moments being exhilarating,

explores what happens when I take time to simply exist,

to exact from my dreams, my interactions, my existence,

what it is to express myself honestly, to extinguish fears

of exploration of the existential, and to extrapolate

the extemporary in my days, the spontaneity

of a conversation with someone new, the chance encounter

with myself, finding time alone to exorcise old family demons.

I will exult in new excitements, find in the rain I’m listening

to right now an external exuberance of nature’s exhalations,

a way for me to exclaim this world’s flaws and fortitude,

while also examining what I need to extrapolate my feelings

in the minutes, days, and months ahead,

an examen of the exemplary as well as the execrable,

my explication of what I’m ready to expose, expunge, or exalt.

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Barbara Simmons, Boston-born, Idaho resident, alumna of Wellesley College and The Writing Seminars (Johns Hopkins) and Santa Clara University’s Counseling Psychology & Education program, a retired educator who writes to wonder and hope. Among her publications are: NewVerse News, DoubleSpeak, Soul-Lit, SweetSmell Journal, Capsule Stories, Writing it Real, All Your Poems, Journal of Expressive Writing, and Oprelle Publication ~ Matters Anthology.