DNR Announces Top Entries In Annual Air, Air, Everywhere Poetry Contest

05/19/2026

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) held its annual poetry contest this spring to celebrate Clean Air Month. Third, fourth and fifth grade students across Wisconsin completed activities from the DNR’s Air, Air, Everywhere teacher’s activity guide and wrote poems and riddles on what they learned about Wisconsin’s air.  “The annual poetry contest continues to be a highlight of Clean Air Month. All of the students that participated in this year’s poetry contest displayed creativity and hard work,” said Gail Good, DNR Air Management Program Director.  The DNR would like to announce that Blake Johnson of Samuel Clemens School took first place in this year’s competition. Congratulations, Blake! Here is the winning poem:

"Our clock is ticking!"

Our air is always there,
you feel her flowing through your hair.
On a hot Summer day
she appears and
soothes away our fears.

But now she is getting frustrated,
choked by smoke and suffocating.
She is firing back with swarms of storms,
as the Earth she protects begins to warm.

Yet people keep on playing a game,
cracking jokes and shifting the blame.
They claim that climate change is just a hoax,
while forest fires turn the lungs of our Earth to smoke.

We suffer while we claim Mother Earth is bluffing.
Allergies flare and inhalers keep us puffing.
Isn’t it ironic?
The very breath that we need to survive,
is the thing we’re neglecting to keep alive.

Our air is speaking.
Can’t you hear?
The message is becoming clear,
we need to work harder
to protect everything that we hold dear!

Let’s leave ourselves and future generations a home
where every living thing can live together safely.
Our clock is ticking,
the time is now,
let’s save the air and teach everyone how!
Leave a world where our air will be
safe
healthy
clean
where everyone can breathe free!

For more information on the Air, Air, Everywhere guide and to view all three winning entries, visit the DNR’s Poetry Contest webpage. Educators may view the Air, Air, Everywhere guide on the DNR's Air Education and Outreach webpage.

Air News is published by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Air Management Program. Previous issues are available on the Air News webpage.