I hope you like my little re-writing of Father and Son. It sums up how happy I feel on Yusuf Islam’s (Cat Stevens) return to the world of popular music after so long a break.

Father and Son Part Two (thirty years on)

 Father:

It’s now time to make a change,

Not relax or take it easy.

You’re grown up, that’s so good,

But there’s still so much to do.

You’ve a wife, and a child,

You settled down, and you married.

I am gone, though I’m gone, I am happy.

*

I can now recall a time, and admit it wasn’t easy,

To be calm in the turmoil we call youth.

But I have travelled, journeyed on,

To a time, a place we all can reach.

Where our yesterdays and morrows are at peace with today.

 *

Son:

You don’t need to explain; though you’ve gone we are now closer.

Though the story’s the same, we have changed.

We were so caught up in talk it was impossible to listen.

It took me time, now I know I don’t have to go away.

I don’t have to go.

*

Father:

It’s now time to make a change,

Get right on, embrace it.

You’re grown up, that’s so good,

But there’s still so much you can do.

You’ve a wife, and a child,

You settled down, you married.

I am gone, I am gone, but I’m happy.

    *

Son:

No more times, wasted times, hiding truth I knew was deep inside,

It’s good, but even better, in sharing.

They were right, I agree, now I’m free to know you and me.

Now I can see, and I know, I don’t have to go away.

I don’t have to go.

 *

(Optional Extra Verse)

Son:

Father, you and I, we cannot be kept apart by time,

We’ll soon be rejoined in the heavens.

Where time will be all gone. and thus unshackled from our minds,

We’ll be free, and we’ll know we don’t have to go away.

We won’t have to go away.

*********************