"A School for Clouds" by Deanna Ferris (York County Winner)

I am the founder of the one and only cloud school

Clouds are immediately enrolled

I teach all subjects 

Important things that every cloud needs to know like

How to move effortlessly across the blue sky 

How to properly show your anger in bright bursts

It’s important for me to teach them 

I teach them how not to fall from the sky 

I teach them how to be fluffy one second 

And dark and brooding the next 

I myself am not a cloud, never have been 

And have no experience in the matter

But I lie so effortlessly and it seems to work 

I teach the basics

Like how to block the sun so it doesn’t burn something

And how to show the stars, to move out of their spotlight

How to suddenly release your tears on the land below 

How to vividly express your feelings

But what do I know, I’m not a cloud 

Sometimes I mess up on teaching 

And my students cause floods

Or droughts, or hurricanes, or blizzards

Some have gotten too close to the ground 

And caused quite a haze 

Though am I really to blame? 

I make up all that I teach them 

For I am not a cloud 

And I know nothing of the matter

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A “School for Clouds” is a poem written by Deanna Ferris while she was an eighth grader at Wells Junior High School. She loves finding fun shapes and animals in the clouds on clear mornings and decided to give a more human aspect to clouds in her poem. She loves reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, and has acquired an enjoyment of writing poems about the aspects of the sky.