--- title: Teen's Poem Goes Viral After Stranger Finds It in a Bar description: The poet is in Brooklyn; the bar in London canonical: https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-25T18:35:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:18.497Z og:title: Teen's Poem Goes Viral After Stranger Finds It in a Bar og:description: Read it and you'll undersand og:url: https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Teen's Poem Goes Viral After Stranger Finds It in a Bar twitter:description: Read it and you'll undersand twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Teen's Poem Goes Viral After Stranger Finds It in a Bar ## Video: 10 Questions for John Ashbery [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for John Ashbery](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nvI0IkUP.m3u8) (4:28)  _Published 2011-11-23. American poet John Ashbery talks to TIME about fame, poverty, art criticism and why he hates the sound of his own voice_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 25, 2015 6:35 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 25, 2015 6:35 PM UTC A Brooklyn teenager’s poem somehow made its way across the Atlantic Ocean to a bar in London, where it was printed and tacked up in a bar. When someone there took a photo of the paper and posted it on social media, it quickly made the rounds on the Internet. The poem, “Worst Day Ever?,” seems to have originally been [posted on PoetryNation](http://www.poetrynation.com/poem.php?id=50509) by Chanie Gorkin, who describes herself as “an 11th grader at an all girls’ high school in Brooklyn, NY. She enjoys writing and music.” On first read, it presents a very gloomy tone, but a twist at the end casts the message in a new light. Ronnie Joice posted a photograph of the poem on Twitter: > [](https://twitter.com/ronniejoice/status/623842588546699264) Exactly why someone printed the poem in the bar remains to be seen, but its popularity seems to be very good news for the young poet. \[[Mashable](http://mashable.com/2015/07/23/chanie-gorkin-poem/?utm%5Fcid=mash-com-Tw-main-link)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/"},"headline":"Teen's Poem Goes Viral After Stranger Finds It in a Bar","datePublished":"2015-07-25T18:35:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:18.497Z","description":"The poet is in Brooklyn; the bar in London","url":"https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","london","Poetry","Brooklyn"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/","name":"Teen's Poem Goes Viral After Stranger Finds It in a Bar"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions for John Ashbery","description":"American poet John Ashbery talks to TIME about fame, poverty, art criticism and why he hates the sound of his own voice","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/nvI0IkUP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-11-23T22:43:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nvI0IkUP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/","duration":"PT4M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3972327/teen-poem-bar-brooklyn/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```