Cat Stevens: In Whose Name Poem by Barney Rooney

So, the first cut is the deepest?
but what of deeper cuts to come
for to change a creed seems deep indeed
as when a father's name no longer suits his son

Steven Georgiou, Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam
each different enough to suggest
that to this Swedish, Cypriot, North London boy
the name matters little
but matters nonetheless

each sound adds its message
in the songsmith's storytell
verse and chorus forge the hook
barbed to catch and hold the sell

hope, loss, beat and rhyme
pleasure, royalties and fame
art and audience entwined
all binding to the name

that first change played with what he'd got
Georgiou awkward in this game
of Tin Pan Alley's ‘oh no I'm nots'
demeaning acts with mock heroic names

none better than Yusuf Islam to mock back
no doubt to whom talent now will pay its due
there are things the man and artist cannot be
as Cat or Demetriou Georgiou

yet, judged alone by music to this ear
the sounds of those first cuts go deep
and when it comes to ‘in whose name'
is there any doubt that winning by a street
-the first cat is the sweetest
baby I know-