Senior Anna Strosser says, “Writing poetry is my primary form of expression.”

She clearly uses verse well in this regard as she has been lauded for her poetry in two competitions this year — Scholastic’s National Poetry Contest, and more local, taking 2nd place in the Danbury Cultural Commission’s annual poetry contest.

Strosser won that competition last year, and is expected to read her work at the commission’s upcoming meeting. She also will be published in this year’s Nutmegger, the school’s literary magazine.

Nutmegger adviser and English teacher Danielle Costello describes Strosser as “simply incredible.”

“Each year she writes new pieces, and it is hard to fathom how each piece always ends up better than the last,” Costello said. “She writes with a level of maturity and understanding that is hard to come by for an 18 year old.”

The young poet credits teachers here and in Manhattan with helping her to find her voice. Since the 8th grade, Strosser has been interning at the Writopia Lab in Manhattan, where she commutes once a week to work with her writing instructor, Lena Roy.

“It has been a privilege to watch her grow and blossom as both a writer and a person over these four years,” Roy said.

Strosser has always loved to write, even well before she started attending Writopia. “In the 8th grade I submitted to the Scholastic Art and Writing awards for the first time …  and won a regional gold key for poetry,” Strosser said. “This motivated me to keep writing.”

From there Strosser has submitted a piece to the awards every year since.

“I love how poetry sounds coming off the tongue,” she said. “Poetry is so lyrical and hearing someone read theirs is beautiful.”

Although Strosser’s writing passion is strong, the contests are tough. For the Scholastic Art and Writing Award contest, there are more than 330,000 submissions in 29 categories.

In the category that Strosser’s poem was in, there were a total of 1,920 submissions. And of that 1,920 only 431 submissions were picked, Strosser being one of them. The 431 students picked were awarded a either a gold or silver key, or honorable mention. Strosser’s poem was awarded a gold key.

The poem “Nose Dives” is “one of the few poems that is inspired by one of my intimate relationships, making it incredibly personal.”

She continues, “In the poem, the speaker is being used by her lover as an escape from his reality. Additionally, it follows the liberation of the speaker as she finds the strength to leave the relationship for her well-being.”

This is the opening of the poem, which is about tragic love:

“you kiss my palm like molasses on ginger cookies

as you look at me with a glimmer

like my nose is the perfect angle for you to dive off of

and you love me, you said”

For the past four years Roy has met with Strosser once a week. She sees how hard her student works when it comes to poetry.

“She is constantly searching for the right words while at the same time whittling them down to be both accessible and emotionally arresting,” Roy says. “When she first started, I could tell she was nervous by the way her voice was soft and her words rushed. But now she reads with a strong, clear voice: she is empowered.”

Strosser will be attending college in the fall and is still undecided on where she would like to attend. Strosser hopes to be a math teacher some day, but writing will always be apart of her and will be in her life.

“ I feel like I couldn’t give up writing even if i tried honestly, it’s so integral to my well-being,” she said.

Costello is encouraging her to stick with her writing.

“Tremendous things will come from her,” Costello said. “She’s promised me that she is going to keep writing, and I cannot wait to see her grow and flourish as a poet and writer.”

Here is “Nose-Dives” in entirety

“Nose-Dives”

By Anna Strosser

you kiss my palm like molasses on ginger cookies

as you look at me with a glimmer

like my nose is the perfect angle for you to dive off of

and you love me, you said

you said it when you drooled it in your sleepy-speak

the icky ache of the rouge ooze dripping from your tongue: sticky — static-y — stubbornly —

you bled it

I watched you beat it out of yourself

I watched as you cranked open your fly-catcher jaw spitting up teeth between syllables —

you ripped it out of your sticky throat

that rebelled against your unfamiliar declaration

(I’m starting to realize it shouldn’t have been that hard)

you love me, you thought

dive! Splash

— you catapult off me

fuzzy limbs and soggy cotton —

you give me that giddy look

like you’re a kid again with butterflies in your belly

you want to butterfly-flutter off my height into that familiar oasis,

the one that makes you forget what the dryland of your dad’s basement smells like

just this Wednesday you begged me to swallow you

you said you love the way my depth makes your ears pop and makes your vision blurry you’ve never known a deeper chasm —

aching to dissolve the woes of your reality into my all-too forgiving waters

— this time, I told you no

I can no longer be used by you as a platform for your escape

I’m corroding — I’m crumbling — I’m crying

it hurts having to lift you up all the time

you use me for that butterfly-belly feeling and the fuzz of popped ears for making you forget about all the bad

you exhaust me — you leave me — you spoil the good in me it’s my turn to escape from you

you don’t love me, I know