A Melody Unsung Poem by Kurt Philip Behm

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)