Wilderness Within

by Tim Clapton
View the authors Profile

In June 2023 an airplane crashed in the Amazon forest with children aboard. After 40 days they were amazingly found alive. Here is a poem which speaks of how they might of survived.


The dead make poor
companions for the children.
So, ignorant of Adam’s curse, they fell
into the arms of the jungle, vulnerable.
Dense trees, animal and fruit to
feed and sustain them.
The wisdom of Gia guiding.


Beyond all hope town folk feared
dread and ill.
They reached out in prayer to mother Mary
and a space in the Sacred Heart.
Calling their little ones from the evil
of wildness.
The tide of grief growing.

What miracles, what mysteries
had these children seen?
What can they not tell or be believed?
Maybe only children pass through
wilderness safely.
Perhaps they have not learnt to fear
or harm natural abundance.
Perhaps they do not know their wildness within.


So I bow to you sister sea and
tread carefully in you dear wilderness.
I will speak tenderly to you brother insect and
glory in you fruit and flower.
But above all I recognise you inner wildness,
you who are the raging of
history healing.