Gjoa Haven (July 24/06) - Trina Sallerina is receiving acclaim for her compositions and one of her poems will be included on an upcoming CD of works.

Sallerina, a teacher in Gjoa Haven for the past 12 years, recently earned the Editor's Choice award for her submission to the website Poetry.Com. Entitled "Nice," her poem will be included in a deluxe hard-bound anthology published by Poetry.Com and the International Library of Poetry.

Hers is one of 33 compositions that will also be recorded and professionally read on a CD.

"It's thrilling," said Sallerina, who has been penning verses since junior high. She entered this contest "never thinking in a million years" that she'd be a winner.

Her poem, based on a child who is bullied, was inspired by one of her students. "Everything I write is based on something in my life, good or bad."

She has been trying to pass on her love of rhythm and rhyme to her students. She insists that anybody can write poetry. As an English teacher, she can mould and guide her Grade 12 proteges, but the product they create on paper belongs to them, she noted.

"It's your poem and no one can criticize," she said.

A wife and mother of three, Sallerina said she doesn't have the time nor money to spend attending the Poetry.Com awards ceremony in Las Vegas this month. So she won't be one of the lucky few to be handed a crystal trophy by presenter Ruben Studdard, of American Idol fame.

But that's okay. Although flattered, she never picked up a pen for the glory in the first place.

"I write poetry just because I love to do it," she said.

And, yes, she is quite aware that even her name rhymes.