For Robert Burns

If words could sing like yours bold Rob

With wit like glittered waters

To kiss an auld grey Scottish day

And woo her wives and daughters



A man could be a prince with that

A plowman of all pastures

From high to low they'd come and glow

Sweet lassies, words departed.

Yes - Byron Bay Bluesfest 2012

Yes, Yes and Yes again. As the soft finger picked notes seemingly drifted through the ether accompanied by a tinkling bell a blue light surrounded us all and we appeared to be enveloped. No man...we were conceived in a soft blue cuckoon of a world as Steve Howe sang those immortal words, 'A man conceived a moment's answer to the dream/ Staying the flowers daily, sensing all the themes' and we all looked at each other and thought 'wow, is it that long ago we stayed the flowers daily?' And the answer is Yes and No. And perhaps if we are honest, we've stayed the flowers daily On and Off. You know, you drift away and Life beats like a bellicose baboon around your head, and you lose focus, so the honest answer is Yes and No, but mainly No because we all fool ourselves, On

 and Off, but to be honest mostly Off. But I digress from Yes The Concert where possibility wafted before us, no... Us, like an electrical banana before an electrical bellicose baboon and we were soothed and 'Emotion revealed as the ocean maid/A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you' and we thought about the Ocean Maid and what indeed she was revealing - well to be honest I did, it flashed before me..., and put a lift into my day, and probably flashed before Len and Pat although I can't say for sure and didn't want to ask but nonetheless 'A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you' became clearer, in fact the whole day gained some sort of perspective and suddenly it was clarity in buckets as the percussion gathered momentum courtesy of Alan White and a figure appeared to the left of the stage and then hovered about two metres above the head of Howe. It was a kaftaned figure sitting in the lotus position -remember the

lotus? Oh man, those were the days. Now? More bloatus than lotus LOL!! Anyway Len said 'It's HIM man' and holy patchouli I kid you not, it was indeed Donovan, with a beatific smile and in the palms supplicant possie chanting 'I embrace you all, and oh yes I taught YES everything I did I did, as I, the Alpha and Omega, am the source of all musics from the dawn of the Celtic time, or the time of the Celtic Dawn, whichever man. '  And Steve Howe with a halo around his head and with Donovan floating above sang those immortal lines again

Coins and crosses/ (Turn round tailor, assaulting)/ Never know their fruitless worth

and Len, Pat and I looked again at each other in absolute awe as the meaning slowly dawned on us.