Some of you may be familiar with this poem already, as it’s gone viral since being tacked to a bar wall in London, where it was photographed and posted to Twitter. The poem has a gloomy message read in the conventional way, but if you read it bottom to top then things improve; it’s all a question of attitude.

I hadn’t seen it before, but it appeared in my Quora feed one morning, and I thought that its message was applicable to the loneliness of the long-distance writer:

The Worst Day Ever?
by Chanie Gorkin

Today was the absolute worst day ever
And don’t try to convince me that
There’s something good in every day
Because, when you take a closer look,
This world is a pretty evil place.
Even if
Some goodness does shine through once in a while
Satisfaction and happiness don’t last.
And it’s not true that
It’s all in the mind and heart
Because
True happiness can be attained
Only if one’s surroundings are good
It’s not true that good exists
I’m sure you can agree that
The reality
Creates
My attitude
It’s all beyond my control
And you’ll never in a million years hear me say
Today was a very good day

[Now read it from bottom to top]