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Teen’s poem about ‘bad day’ goes viral after London man finds it in a bar

uplifting poem

Depending on which way you read this poem, it quite literally has two very differing messages, and it is this kind of creativity that has helped Chanie Gorkin’s work in gingo viral.

Gorkin, 16, is from Beth Rivkah High School in the Crown Heights area in Brooklyn, New York.

Last year, she wrote the poem for a high school assignment about a bad day. Thanks to social media this week, a snapshot of the poem has gone viral after a stranger found it in bar.

It was first posted on PoetryNation by Gorkin and it somehow made its way across the Atlantic Ocean to a bar in London, where Ronnie Joice saw it pinned onto the wall. He decided to share the inspirational poem with his followers on Twitter and it quickly took off from there.

When reading the poem from top to bottom it casts a dark message, which starts with “today was the absolute worst day ever.” It gets more and more depressing as each line is read.

But a twist at end casts the poem into a whole new positive light. By reading it backwards the poem’s meaning is reversed.

Gorkin’s family is Hasidic and one of the major principles is that “the mind rules over the heart, that we are able to channel our emotions to the positive…and it is part of our mission in life to look for the good,” Dena Gorkin, Chaine’s mom told ABC News.

So when her daughter was given the assignment in school to write about the worst day ever, Gorkin used “her writing skills to turn the question around.

According to TODAY.com, the young poet is volunteering at a summer camp until the end of August. Therefore, she’s unavailable for comment but her mother has been talking to the media.

“I think Chanie’s poem has become popular because there’s a lot of darkness in this world, and something uplifting like this really resonates,” her mother told Chabad.org. “Words from the heart enter the heart. I think Chanie’s sincerity was felt through her words.”