What does it mean to be a man - alive, tender and creative - in these unravelling times?

In this meandering, vulnerable and playful conversation, I sit down with Mark De’Lisser - poet, artist, youth mentor, and nature-based guide.

Mark is a friend and collaborator, part of the Becoming Crew action learning collective, guiding people through deep connection experiences and rites of passage on the land.

Together we explore:

🌳 Masculinity reimagined - strength and vulnerability as inseparable forces.

🌦️ Fear, loss, and love - how grief becomes medicine when we stay with it.

🪶 Creativity as survival - poetry, play and performance as acts of healing.

🔥 Guiding young men - the courage, chaos and beauty of holding space for the next generation.

🌍 Reconnection and Renewal - finding belonging again in community and with the living Earth.

The episode also celebrates the launch of Mark’s debut poetry collection, Ashes to the Breeze - a tender, elemental offering that speaks of renewal, grief and the power of blooming again after loss.

And Marks shares some of those poems here.

This is a conversation about men learning to feel in fearful times, about friendship as ceremony and about listening - really listening - to the living Earth that still holds us.

I really hope you receive something through this and if you do, please consider sharing with someone else, posting on your socials, or leaving a reflection on the substack.

It is through reciprocity that we grow together.

Peace and Out

Dan

LINKS

Buy Ashes to the Breeze via Waterstones

Buy Ashes to the Breeze via Bookshop

Mark De’Lisser site

Into the Dark - 5 week winter adventure -Becoming Crew registration

Becoming Fridays - Becoming Crew one day on the land

Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Takeaways from the Ditchley Conference