Being There
On the morning-moist edge of Chase Woods
fallen conkers are protected in their
green sputnik cases, lying in a firebed
of wounded autumn leaves. Under the rising sun
the trees are black; to each side a painter
has daubed the canopy with diffused orange.
My dog is a steam train running against
a barrage of birdsong. I’m a margin of nostalgia
in some spent photograph.
The sloping rows of blackcurrants drop an arc
to the meadow, the gaps between shining
as warming ice, as dew and light live their
daily awakening. There is a reproduction of shadows
in this molten waving motion of vision.
On this church-chime Sunday, it doesn’t
matter if we loved once; it doesn’t matter
if we’ve never met; it doesn’t matter if our
paths will never cross again. What matters
is that when I exhale this, you sense the air,
my breath the failing breeze you feel.
When I look to the far spire you too will see
across the fields with me, there on the book
in your hand, on every single wall you own,
in whatever direction you care to look.
It’s the only important thing this ennobled moment:
Being there.
“A while ago I volunteered with an online charity for older people, writing about poetry, its many forms and running a few competitions to garner a togetherness and show how poetry can help with mental wellbeing. I learned then how lonely or restricted some people were. Through the many years with Indigo we have built a large following, some of whom are housebound or with limited mobility etc. Many expressed how they enjoyed the journey with me through poetry, places they’d never been, places they know but can no longer get to. This was the mainspring for the poem, written for them to visualise and feel, my thanks back to them really. I told as many as I could and fortunately it was well received. It’s in Forest Moor or Less (Indigo Dreams, 2020) and I was delighted that quite a number were able to join the audience at the online launch where the poem was dedicated to them. It’s also one of Dawn’s favourites so that’s a bonus!”
Ronnie started in publishing back in the late eighties, mainly high profile (at the time) people like Uri Geller, DJ Mike Read and England cricketer RC ‘Jack’ Russell and returned to it in 2005. He started Indigo Dreams Publishing as a sole trader which evolved, with partner & co-director Dawn Bauling, into the company we all know. As a poet Ronnie has won numerous poetry awards/competitions, and has seven published collections. He was on the BBC judging panel for their ‘Off By Heart’ children’s poetry competition. With Dawn he was awarded the Ted Slade Award for Services to Poetry and their joint collection, Forest Moor or Less, won the Best Collaborative Work 2021 at the Saboteur Literary Awards. Indigo Dreams has twice won the Most Innovative Publisher Award, 2021 and 2017. Ronnie is an animal rights advocate and is Poet in Residence for campaigning charity League Against Cruel Sports. This year he will be launching a poetry anthology, Voices For The Silent, to assist their work.
Ben Banyard 
This really engages the senses. Lovely
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