Reading Lamp

If the book in hand
Were good enough, if
There were a book in
Hand, instead of was,
This would be the lamp.

Poor people, working
So hard to write what
You could claim angels
Or Gods had written—
Sacred prophecy,

Honest science, and
True mythology—
When it has to be
You, you who, lonely,
Wrote whatever book

This one managed to
Be, under a lamp,
A human thing.
Recorded music
Would stream on softly,

And the night outside
Would freeze, and your lamp
Burn gold dreamily,
If there were a book
Good enough to read.