Episode 109: Mark De'Lisser | Ashes to the Breeze

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 here.

It is through reciprocity that we grow together.