"As mandated in UWS 8.025, all faculty and academic staff must file a report on their outside activities."
-- Vice Chancellor

Every day, religiously,
I change my underwear.

When I leave my house,
I always lose my way.

I no longer pay
attention to the news.

When my cat meows,
I listen to the syllables.

On my back, I study
the language of clouds,

the wheel of jay,
the swoop of cardinal.

At the close of light,
I wrap myself

in the blanket of night.
I pray the blackness

finds in my good company.
Morning showers me with gold.

Less and less I count
the change in my pockets.

More and more I grow
rich from these activities.

3. Jesus Addresses the University Faculty

Colleagues, you are
textbook cases,

but not hopeless.
Let go your notes.

Perish the thought
of tenure and title.

Breathing is tenure.
For title, your name.

Man does not live
by resumes alone.

How many flutters
in a blackbird's wing?

Who taught the oriole
to sing? Behold

this universe, this
university, and open

yourself like a book
you can't wait to begin.

Take yourself as source,
a bibliography of one,

and savor every word.
Any word can be

a savior. Read
between the lines

your possibilities,
and note how school

derives from shul.
The world's a synogogue,

the holiest of classrooms,
its teacher your skin,

your blood, your bone.
Let your words be

academic no longer.
Govern your life

no longer by degrees.
There is life beyond

the Ph.D.,
and he that opens

heart and eye
shall never die.

Colleagues,
you have more

faculties than you know.