Wilderness Within

A Columbian aircraft crashed in the Amazon jungle in June 2023. Many were killed but there was a group of children on board who were not found amongst the wreckage of the plane. It appeared they had wondered off into the jungle.

Search parties were set up and parents waited anxiously. This story made international news when, after forty days, the children were found, really quite well. The children survived by eating fruit from the jungle. Some speculated that indeed the jungle had taken care of the children.

This poem emerged after the children had been found. Printed here to mark the second anniversary of the event.

Wilderness Within

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 abundant.
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.

Tim Clapton

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