There’s a surprise in this teen’s brilliant poem, and now it’s going viral around the world
We all have those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. You know, when you spill something on your white shirt, and you miss the bus, and you forgot about a homework assignment, and things just keep piling up — it feels like nothing can ever go right. It’s easy to get down on yourself and let the negative thinking spiral out of control.
But things are not always as they seem. That’s what one brilliant teen writer has taught us with a seriously mind-bending poem that has been traveling all over the Interwebz for its insane cleverness. Londoner Ronnie Joice tweeted this picture of the poem when he found it tacked to the wall of a bar in North London, and it’s since gone bananas viral.
OK, so before we say anything, read this poem:
Seems like a total downer of a poem, and we felt a little bit sad reading it the first time, TBH. But now, try reading it from the bottom up. . . and it’s transformed into the happiest and most inspirational of poems. Brilliant, right?!
Well, it turns out the person who may have actually wrote this poem isn’t located in London, but in New York. . . oh, and she hasn’t even left high school yet. The poem can be found on PoetryNation.com and is credited to Chanie Gorkin, “an 11th grader at an all girls’ high school in Brooklyn, NY” who “enjoys writing and music,” according to her profile. And she pretty much managed to cheer up not only all of London, but all of the Internet with her mysterious palindrome-ish poem writing. NBD.
Chanie’s not alone in her affinity for clever poetry with double meanings: it seems as though teens are totally rocking the poetry world as of late. Take Jordan Nichols and his poem “Our Generation,” which he penned last year when he was just 14. His older brother Derek tweeted a photograph of the poem in February 2014, saying, “Read this. . . My [14-year-old] brother wrote this. . .”:
Read from top to bottom, it’s hopeless and sad; read from the bottom up though, it’s motivating and empowering. Just another teen being totally, 100% brilliant. A lot of people compared Jordan’s poem to a poem entitled “Lost Generation,” which was penned by Jonathan Reed and was posted to YouTube back in 2007. Perhaps Jordan was inspired by Reed, but either way, we totally love both versions — as well as Chanie’s amazing poem.
What really gets us about these poems is that they signify how important perspective really is — not only from a reading standpoint, but in life. Bad days can make us feel like life is hopeless, but flip a situation on its head, and you can see the light.
It just goes to show that teenage poetry can actually be legitimately awe-inspiring. Poetry is known for having double meanings, but this very literal take on that idea is awesome and creative. . Trust me: I tried to make this post backwards-compatible, but it didn’t work so well. I’ll leave it to the teen pros.
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