Growing up in the shadow of a talented artist sister, I never thought of myself as creative. The only thing I can draw is a cat, I sing unexpected notes (a.k.a., off-key), and I’m not crafty. I was in my 40’s when my muse started nudging me to play with words. I surprised myself by writing and performing memoir, and song lyrics came bursting forth. And then, personal, professional, and poetic collided in the form of bisexual haiku (biku)! Inspired by Swifties, I even crafted friendship bracelets to accompany my second book. Unleashing my creativity ignited my public speaking, writing, teaching, hosting, and even gardening. Thanks to some documentary appearances, I actually have a presence on IMDB! When I asked guests at my retirement celebration to share a word that described me, “creative” took up a lot of space in the word cloud. I offer a glimpse into my creative world here in hopes that you will be entertained, and possibly even recognize more of your own inner artist.

I started writing memoir when my answer to a friend’s query, “have you ever been married?” evoked the response, “you should submit that story to The Moth! I obediently wrote the story and submitted it to The Moth, and I’m still waiting for them to call. Fortunately, I also submitted the piece to a local memoir show, Personal Stories, and I got to perform it in Santa Barbara. I continued writing, submitting, and performing short memoir pieces for local venues. Ever suggestible, when I received an email to “Dear Playwright,” I wrote a memoir play, and it was performed at Playfest Santa Barbara as part of the Breakfast with Smartasses show. I later collaborated with a essayist to bring our writings to life on the Dr. Waffle and Friends podcast. I am deeply indebted to those who have encouraged me to write and share my life and to amazing teachers who helped me find my voice, particularly Alan Watt and Ellen Bass.

Haiku is a form of poetry with origins in Japan. It is comprised of 3 lines with a specified number of syllables per line – 5, 7, 5.

Bisexuality is the potential for attraction to more than one gender.

Put them together, and you have bisexual haiku (biku)!

I was born into a lineage of songsters. By far, the most accomplished is my great uncle, William Schuman, who composed classical music, as well as an opera about Casey at the Bat. I take after my dad and his cousin, who are particularly skilled at crafting new words for existing songs and singing them at family gatherings.

My earliest lyrics were about my cat, then tunes describing ports of call on a Semester at Sea voyage, followed by campaign ditties for political candidates, and most prolifically, songs about Buddhist teachings (many for the Prajna Sparks podcast). As I do not write melodies, I borrow from a range of tunes, including Broadway, pop, and rock; which makes my lyrics easily adaptable to karaoke!