Cat was my iconic hero...

[ilovemycat]

This poem made me cry - how absolutely beautiful. Thank you Sun for posting it. Does anyone know if Yusuf has ever read it? It perfectly puts into words, the effect of Cat's divine music...

To whoever wrote this poem - I think a bit of Cat has rubbed off on you!

I Fall Through
A poem to Yusuf, written from the point-of-view of a Cat Stevens fan

I thought if I could touch you
I could touch your magic
Could take your swirling images
And somehow make them real
Something I could feel

So. . .

I reached out to touch you
But found this gaping emptiness
Like falling through the looking glass
And never finding you - just simply falling through

And somewhere in my stumbling
Confusion’s crazy crumbling
In all my foolish fumbling
I lost my faith in you. . .

And. . .

I threw away your images
With all their empty promises
So sweet, yet so untrue. . .

But. . .

Your songs keep coming through. . .

And each is like a looking glass
Where I see you, each time you pass—
Compelling me to follow you
And so I do. . .

And I fall through . . .

And all at once, I’m in a world
Where sight is dimmed and thoughts are swirled
Where spirits waken to your sound
Where body’s lost, but soul is found

Where notes dance with eternity
So beautifully, so heavenly
And every note is lifting me
Till you are there, right next to me

And. . .

Your voice is like a healing wine
Where angels, God, and soul entwine
So purely singing all I feel –
And nothing else could be so real. . .


This looking glass that I fall through
Reveals the world where I find you
A world that’s real, though made of sound. . .
The sweetest place I’ve ever found

[susand]

He was my favorite artist/singer when he lived in America. I loved his music.....still call him my favorite of that time. I had thought he was going to embrace the Christian faith, with the peace that passes all understanding, but instead he went back to his childhood faith Islam after his near death experience in the water. I have missed the peaceful soft spoken beautiful man that he was to me. I still call him my favorite singer, but disappointed by his choice of religion he has chosen to follow

[Fireowl]

My Cat story:

I never got the chance to attend his concerts. (I was too young!)I was only 11 when Teaser and the Firecat was released on my birthday (9/1) in 1971. But I had two Cat related experiences that stood out. The first happened in 1974 or 75, one weekend my father took me to an amusement park in Valencia, CA. (I grew up in Los Angeles.) At some point during that day, walking out of one of the restaurant buildings I looked up and in front of me was Cat Stevens and Alun Davies. Cat/Steve was staring at me, or more specifically at my t-shirt. For I was wearing my home made (lovingly hand embroidered) Teaser and the Firecat t-shirt. I was in shock, I turned beat red and ran away. To this day I wish I had been brave enough to say something, anything! Later that day I saw them again sitting at a restaurant table eating and still I could not get up the nerve. Such a missed opportunity!

The second sighting took place a year or so later, in 1976. My parents and I were out on a coastal drive along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. My step father saw him first and said, "isn't that the guy you have pictures of on your wall?" I looked out the window and saw Cat getting out a car in front of a Malibu house. I have always wondered if it is the same period of time that he talks about when he speaks of almost drowning in the ocean.

His birthday is the day after my mother's and I used to celebrate both of their birthdays together (I'd always have something there that represented Cat.)

His music got me through an emotionally rough childhood. Iconic hero - definitely!

[tiffany]

Cat Stevens has been my favourite pop star, singer and icon since 1972, that's 37 years ago. I had just turned ten in that year, after I first heard him sing "Morning Has Broken. Then, in December that year, my brother John bought me the Teaser and the Firecat album, and two of my faves on it were "How Can I Tell You" and Moonshadow, the optimist anthem, which say it all "If I lose my legs, I won't moan or I won't beg. Meaningful, but true.