can you write if you can't hear it?

I mean: can you write LYRICS if you can't hear them sung? I'm not quite sure! What I'm sure of is that I keep hearing songs when I write lyrics, tunes that only exist in my mind. Some may even come to life eventually, i.e. I actually record the songs, yet most don't. Some will be set to music be others who will never be able to hear the melody I had in mind when writing the text. Whatever happens to my lyrics - they actually never existend without music.

At the moment I am working on "scavengers". I had a tune in mind when I wrote it, of course, it sounded a little like Jethro Tull. At least the parts that I use instead of the chorus did (the structure is A B A B A B - there is no real chorus). Yet the tune I am going to record tomorrow will be quite different...