My guest today is Alan Cooke, a filmmaker, poet, and speaker from the wilds of Ireland.Alan’s poetic and literary work is based on the narrative of the medicine of nature, forged from the sorrow of undergoing numerous personal and cultural losses in his days.  Back in 2009, Alan won an Emmy for writing a film about his time in New York City, titled Home.   After returning to Ireland, he spent 13 years as a wandered and walker of the Irish landscape, refining the power of words to alchemize trauma into beauty.In our conversation today, we speak of his youth growing up in Dublin and his initiation into the poetic imagination, we speak of his hard days in New York and the cascade of loss that met him upon returning to Ireland, and we speak of how nature brought Alan back to a deeper sense of his masculinity, and how in the end, all darkness turns to beauty.And of course, Alan shares a few poems.   I’ve layered the beautiful harp playing of Andee Anko behind his words.Support this podcast http://patreon.com/ianmack Join the Conversation http://themythicmasculine.com/network Get full access to The Mythic Masculine at themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe