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Julene Tripp Weaver

Julene Tripp Weaver

Slow Now With Clear Skies


Julene Tripp Weaver, a psychotherapist and writer in Seattle, has three prior poetry collections; truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS (Finishing Line Press, 2017), which won the Bisexual Book Award, four Human Relations Indie Book Awards, and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards; No Father Can Save Her, (Plain View Press, 2011); and a chapbook, Case Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues , (Finishing Line Press, 2007).

Her poems have appeared in many journals including: HEAL, Autumn Sky Poetry, Oye Drum, Poetry Super Highway, As it Ought To Be , and elsewhere. Recent anthologies include: Rumors Secrets & Lies: Poems about Pregnancy, Abortion & Choice, I Sing the Salmon Home, Writing Through the Apocalypse, The Power of the Feminine I: poems from the feminine perspective, Volume 2 , and Nerve Cowboy Selected Works 2004-2012.

Her third poetry book, truth be bold, empowered her to start writing a memoir about her life and work as a long term survivor. She is an ‘Artivist’ in the Through Positive Eyes Project sponsored by The Gates Discovery Center and UCLA Art and Global Health. The goal is to eliminate stigma about AIDS by sharing stories. She was a Jack Straw Writing Fellow (2023). Essay publications include: The Guardian, Hags on Fire, The Muse (McMaster University), Mollyhouse, which nominated her essay for a Pushcart. Her essay, “Babes With AIDS,” about being one of the founders of the Babes Network, a peer support organization for women living with HIV, won Honorary Mention for the Christopher Hewitt Award in Nonfiction, A&U (AIDS & Understanding) Magazine.

She has received support from Centrum, the University of Washington's Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center, Mineral School, Vashon Artists in Residence, and Hypatia-in-the-Woods.

Julene's web site

Instagram: @julenet.weaver


Read a review of Slow Now With Clear Skies by Jack Remick in Raven Chronicles

Read a review of Slow Now With Clear Skies by Bethany Reid.

Readings

Julene reading from Slow Now With Clear Skies

also featuring Donna Prinzmetal.


Slow Now With Clear Skies: $18.99

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Poem from Slow Now With Clear Skies

Slow Growth

Bombarded by men who could sit hours on
a lake in a boat waiting for a fish to bite.
Patience their virtue—we had few options.

I was a girl in the country who had to save myself,
mother had hands like scissors and a mouth with no words.
Hoping for the best, after we moved, I followed the dream—

rebellion—independence, I escaped into city parks,
crushed pennies on railroad tracks. Nothing was right.
I said no to unwanted advances, forging a path.

My dreams grew and the clouds cleared—I had to get small
before I could get big—dreams squelched too easy after Father
died, but there is something about moving on despite

all odds against. Miracles live on the horizon—a tiny seed
I could have discarded, but I held it in my dark center, it had to
germinate a long time, it was cheerless and mournful for years.

With no other option but to press forward, it finally bloomed
like an orchid that took forever, then stunned me with love.

Slow Now With Clear Skies