Episode 121 is a conversation with poet, writer, storyteller, teacher and guide Tom Hirons .
Tom is someone whose work I discovered probably like many through a poem he wrote called ‘SOMETIMES A WILD GOD.’
I discovered this incredible offering about this time of year in Autumn 4 years ago, I remember it because I was in a deep grief at that time following some incredibly challenging news in my family.
I remember going to a mens circle which my friend Al Kennedy had organised, out near Bristol, and I took that poem with me and I read it at the end of the circle around the fire.
And every man there afterwards asked me to share that poem.
And that’s how I began to notice Tom Hirons
Last year Tom released a book of poems called Molok - written as a response to the overwhelm of witnessing the ongoing massacre and genocide of Palestinian people.
It’s another incredible offering which I heartily recommend supporting with a purchase.
It was in the middle of the sweltering summer that just was that I noticed a post from Tom on Instagram with a title ‘The Shit We ‘re In’.
And it prompted me to reach out to see if he wanted a conversation about the ‘shit we’re in’.
So we recorded this a month ago, on a Monday morning which is a first for me on the pod.
This was a rich, wandering and often funny conversation - we explore the strange, heartbreaking times we’re living through, and how we might find ways to stay open, connected and fully human amidst it all.
We meander through wildness, poetry, grief, despair, the ancient parts of ourselves, and a deep ‘homesickness’, as Tom puts it, for belonging in a world that has become profoundly disconnected.
We riff on poetry as a form of truth-telling, the power of the land to help us remember who we are, and how we might prepare younger generations for futures we cannot know.
Running through it all is a thread of a question: How do we face the enormity of what’s happening without shutting down, numbing out or losing our capacity to love and imagine?
And perhaps the simplest, most radical invitation of all: to begin reconnecting with the living world and the people right around us.
Connection is resistance, as Tom says
And maybe, finding our way home.
This is likely the last episode from me for some time, as I prepare for an immense, heartbreaking threshold of change in my life and family which means the pod will be hibernating for the winter.
Thank you for your support - there are over 120 episodes from the last 8 years, with some extraordinary human crew, many of those conversations feel more relevant and helpful than ever to me, so I encourage you to have a dig into them if you’re curious, there’s a lot of wisdom in them ramblings for these times we are in.
If you receive something through this episode, please do comment here, and share with someone else who might appreciate it - this is the practice of reciprocity that appears to be the foundation of how all life works on Spaceship Earth.
And we really value your support and welcome your reflections.
Thank you for reading, listening and your ongoing support.
Peace and Out
Dan
