--- 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 > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## 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. \[[Mashable](http://mashable.com/2015/07/23/chanie-gorkin-poem/?utm%5Fcid=mash-com-Tw-main-link)\] ## Transcript Hi, I'm Belinda Luscombe. I'm an editor at large at Time Magazine. But you're not here for me. You're here for John Ashbury, often called America's most important living poet. Thanks for letting us come here, Mr. Ashbury. Thank you for coming. You won an award from the National, book association last night. Are you, in fact, America's most important living poet? I don't think so important? I get talked about a lot. But for many years the jury has been out and probably will be on the question of my importance. I enjoy writing the way I do, which doesn't please a lot of people. Pleases others enormously. Do you ever read what the critics write about you? What poetry and literary critic write about you and just think, this is hysterical. Or this is ridiculous? no. I don't feel that this is ridiculous because I don't know. Maybe they're right. I haven't gotten that. Much confidence in, in my writing. That's more like you know, hope rather than confidence. Do other forms of poetry interest you, poetry slams, those kinda things? I don't really like poetry readings very much, including my own. I, I hate the sound of my own voice for instant, and I, I can't stand listening to myself reading poetry. And, that goes true [ LAUGH ] for most other poets too. Do you think that there's any way in which poetry? Which, in, in my lifetime, and probably in yours, seems to have become less and less popular, do you think there's a way that can become more part of people's life again? No it. I'm [ CROSSTALK ] prepared to be wrong. Is that there's a much bigger audience from poetries than there was. When I was young. In fact, when I began writing, there was really only one poetry magazine in the country. Poetry. Today there seems there's so many magazines, presses, so many poets I have the impression that poetry has. Liked more by those who like it than was the case in the past. Now you grew up in an era where it was considered shameful to be gay, and that is no longer the prevailing view; I would say. Oh really? You don't, well? [ LAUGH ] I guess the jury's out? It's certainly. [ CROSSTALK ] Nobody told me. It's certainly not as prevailing as it was. Would you go that far with me? Sure. Do you think if, that attitude had been current in your life it would have changed your work? I've never been, sure how that would've worked. There's a school of criticism who says that my [ INAUDIBLE ] is so torturous and obscure because I've been trying to cover up the fact of my sexuality all these years. And I think that's an interesting possibility and there may indeed be some truth in it. But I'm not quite sure, how much, and whether that's the generating force in, my poetry. I think I would have, been attracted, to this kind of poetry, an, anyway. Do you currently make a living off your poetry? Heavens no. I mean. Gosh no. Shucks no. [ LAUGH ] No, not at all. I, I've made a living teaching. Which I'm now retired. That's one thing poets can do and many of them do to survive. If you could swap places and you could, instead of being America's most important. Living poet. You could be America's most important living, something else, what would you like it to be? I don't think I'd wanna be anything else. I think I, I, I'd rather stick with poetry. Mr. Ashbry, thanks very much. [ LAUGH ] Thank you. 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