“What do you call it when people living in the wealthiest, most powerful country on the planet report feeling worn down, burned out and on edge?”

So writes Jenifer Szalai, nonfiction book critic for the New York Times, in a review of books that “delve into our primal desire to feel valued and worthy of attention.”

Explanations for this condition, Szalai writes, include political breakdown, economic inequality and an epidemic of loneliness. But, the books suggest a crisis of “mattering” – feeling valued – a core human need that has grave consequences when it isn’t met.

For nonhuman animals, the Darwinian mechanism of gene propagation is paramount, Szalai writes. “They don’t write poetry, paint paintings or compose symphonies. Humans, though, do all sorts of strange, glorious and sometimes destructive things that are utterly superfluous (or even counter) to brute survival.”

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of “The Mattering Instinct,” suggests these actions flow from our unique human longing to matter. In pursuit of mattering projects, we humans try to resist entropy because our human brains have the ability to identify it.

Goldstein maps the human mattering drive. “Socializers” want to matter to others. “Competitors” want to matter more than others. “Transcenders” want to matter to God or the universe. “Heroic Strivers” want to do something (artistic, athletic, intellectual) that matters to them.

Our mattering projects bring us a sense of purpose, Szalai writes, but references Goldstein that the longing to matter can also misdirect us and lead us astray. Also, mattering and happiness are not the same.

The publication of books on mattering “is clearly a reflection of something larger,” Szalai writes. “There is a lack, or a void, that has been ascendent in the last several years – the nihilism of ‘lol nothing matters’ and ‘I really don’t care. Do U?’ There is also the growing problem of our collapsing attention spans. All of these issues are connected.”

What matters to you? Is this the same as meaning and purpose for life? And, does it really matter?

An important book that informs the convening and concept of Contemplative Poets is “An Ocean of Light” by Martin Laird. 

Laird quotes Archbishop Rowan Williams who declares that contemplation “is a deeply revolutionary matter.”

Laird goes on to write that “contemplation liberates us from the seeds of violence in our own heart, especially from our individual and social compulsions to find someone to blame for the ills that befall us – such compulsions do nothing but keep us bent over ourselves, blind to what constitutes a human.”

From Thaddeus of Vitnovnica, Laird shares: “If our thoughts are kind, peaceful, and quiet, turned only toward good, then we also influence ourselves and radiate peace all around us – in our family, the whole country, everywhere. This is true not only here on earth, but in the cosmos as well.”

Contemplation, and the lifestyle leading to it and flowing from it, asks but a single question, ‘What does kindness look like at any given moment’” Laird writes.

The problem is, according to Laird, our minds are deeply cluttered. He uses the metaphor of the cluttering and decluttering of our minds as a way of considering how the practice of contemplation works.

“The metaphor allows us to look at the contemplative process of liberation from a point of view other than that of acquiring something we think we do not have and therefore must up with a strategy to acquire, possess and control.  Think of a bright and spacious room whose polished wooded floor is covered with mounds of clutter of whatever sort. The practice of contemplation gradually declutters our minds, gradually revealing the brightly polished floor – the radiant core of all – that we did not realize was already there…”

“Our guiding metaphor of clutter and the process of decluttering (release, letting be, letting go, non-clinging) bring to the fore certain topics crucial to the practice of contemplation.

The same process of decluttering is the foundation of the beauty of poetry. We seek to recognize and celebrate only the essence of what really is. A revolutionary act, indeed!

By Bob Lodes

My mind was thinking of sunsets, sunrises and walks on the sandy beach in search of something to photograph.

We were waiting in line and the monitor sign said it would be fifteen minutes more. We could see the ferry in the distance coming to take us across the ship channel to the Island called Port Aransas. We’ve been many times before, but this was special – our forty-fifth wedding anniversary. Year after year we stay at the same condo, same view of the pool, treasured walks on the same beach. Sitting here, waiting, we watch the birds fly in the crisp air of February. Sea gulls follow the ferry in hopes of finding food. When the ferry arrives my anticipation increases and it seems like an eternity before we finally get to the condo and unpack the car.

Eighteen years ago my tumor was removed through three brain surgeries that left me with double vision to carry on my passion for wildlife photography, one eye closed and the other searching the viewfinder. Now, I have lost one of those eyes permanently to retina occlusion, sometimes called an eye stroke. This was my strong eye that I used for my photography. With hope shattered, I started to try and teach myself to use my other eye to pursue my passion.

On the beach, people were fishing on the long pier. Young people were surfing large waves like I had not seen here before. After a couple of days and no pictures, my wife encouraged me to go with her to the wildlife preserve, just a short drive away. We arrived and took the long walk together down the boardwalk to an observation tower near the end. Along the way we watched the ducks, one snake and a swamp filled with who knows what. Those ahead of us were pointing to what they called a Tricolored Heron. Yes, a photo op for me. For a moment I forgot about my eye problem, my heart picked up a beat, and my mind exploded with wonder. I spend a lot of time in amazement of God’s creations and holding on to his promise, “Behold, I will do a new thing.”

We were walking back to the car when my good eye caught the image of a beautiful winged creature standing in the water. The bird was so majestic I stopped instinctively with camera in hand. Click, click, click. I was shaking and knew none of my shots would come out sharp.  Leaving, I looked back one more time and the brightly colored bird was still there in a striking pose, watching me. Maybe God was waiting for me to say “thank you” for the good eye.

Later, I learned this bird is the Red Knot from northern Canada near the Arctic. They come here to winter, flying up to 19,000 miles a year. In the almost last day on the island I found my hope returning thanks to this beautiful bird telling me, “Yes, Bob, you can still do it.”

I’m wondering now if the Red Knot has gone back to Canada and will he be back next year? I don’t know, but I do know that I am coming back.

The Contemplative Poets value reading as a contemplative practice…

Reading for pleasure in America is declining significantly, with a major 2025 study showing a 40% drop over two decades (2003-2023), driven by digital distractions like social media, shorter attention spans, and less time for deep engagement, impacting all ages.

Ray Bradbury, author of the chilling novel Fahrenheit 451, in which firemen sought out books to burn them to prop up a dystopian reality, famously said:

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” And he also said: “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.”

Contemplative Poets refuse to go quietly into that dark night.

Here is our most current list of transformative books that we believe everyone should read… and enjoy…

“The first poets didn’t come out of a classroom,” says poet Lucille Clifton.

“Poetry began when somebody walked off of a savanna or out of a cave, looked up at the sky with wonder and said:

“Ahhh….”

“That was the first poem”

Flaubert tells us:

“There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it.”

“Poetry is everywhere,” James Tate says.

For centuries, poets have been among the keenest observers. They know how to pay attention. They see beauty. They contemplate. They discuss with others what they see.

John Lennon: “Any artist or poet’s role is to try and express what we all feel, not to tell people how to feel; not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection.”

 “Poetry is not difficult,” says Gloria Gonsalves. “If you possess one of the five senses, poetry is in it. If you can compose a text message,Tweet or Facebook status, you can write poetry. If you can rap a song, you can rhyme poetry. If you can memorize a prayer, you can recite poetry.” 

Your invitation to join Contemplative Poets honors your interests to see beyond the obvious and to share your observations without judgment or agenda among a gathering of like-minded souls. Our gathering has nothing to do with writing poetry (though please feel free to share if you do). Our purpose is to gather as poets contemplating together life’s riches and its song.

The poet is:

• A Seeker of Truth: driven by curiosity to ask fundamental questions about existence, emotion, beauty and justice who delves into the hidden nuances that often go unarticulated in everyday life .

• An Explorer of Language:  experimenting with the limits and possibilities of words, rhythm and metaphor, constantly searching for precise expression that makes the abstract concrete and the familiar new.

• A Discoverer of Connection: Through keen observation and creative synthesis, poets reveal unexpected connections between disparate elements, linking personal emotion to universal experience, the mundane to the profound.

• A Mapmaker of the Inner World:  They venture into the landscape of memory, the human mind and spirit to discover and chart territories of consciousness and imagination that may be unmapped or overlooked. 

The poet seeks not just for personal enlightenment, but to bring back discoveries from the edge of human perception to enrich the collective human understanding.

When we thumb through a compilation of quotes from great writers we always find comments from them about the importance of reading.

This is particularly important for those of us who write or who want to write. But, it is true for everyone who values critical thinking and discovery.

Most of the wise agree that what we read is not as important as the act of reading itself.

“Read, read, read,” William Faulkner said. “Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad… ”

Victor Hugo says that  “to learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”

“Books are uniquely portable magic,” says author Steven King. “Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”