A Melody Unsung

Can you be distracted by the critic
  or the public acclaim

Can you see through the fire
  and renew all that’s burnt

Can you look past the signposts
  and those messages now fixed

Can your soul stay undamaged
  as the world tempts your heart

Can you run through other voices
  with yours still unspoken

Can you make it to tomorrow
  without ever leaving today

Can you give love to those hateful
  with all vengeance recalled

Can you carry your grandfather’s words
  into the land of the unborn

Can you hang up your spear
  far beyond the enemy camp

Can you live to see the beginning
  and the end die at last

Can you start over again
  in a voice not bartered or loaned

Can you listen through the
  smoke and ash,
      ---and hear a melody unsung

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2015)