Think You're Having a Bad Day? Read This Poem...and Then Read the Secret Message Hidden In Plain Sight

People often use phrases like "worst day ever" when responding to a question about how their day went — and it's frequently an exaggeration meant just to convey that it was a bad day in general.

A poem that was recently posted in a London bar, according to Mashable, and was tweeted by Ronnie Joice starts off just that way.

pic.twitter.com/q3BReodddw

— Ronnie Joice (@ronniejoice) July 22, 2015

But if you read it all the way through and do what it says, you might find that while it seems like a pretty dark piece of prose at first glance, it is actually quite inspiring:

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, the other way,

And see what I really feel about my day.

As Mashable pointed out, the original source of the poem appears to be a teen named Chanie Gorkin, who according to her profile on PoetryNation is — or at one point was — an 11th grade student at an all girls high school in Brooklyn, New York.

Rachel Eber with Eber & Wein Publishing, an independent publisher that runs PoetyNation, told TheBlaze over the phone Friday that Gorkin submitted her poem in a contest in November 2014. She made it to the semifinal round in that contest and her piece was published in an anthology.

As for the poem making its rounds now, Eber said they too have noticed it going viral.

Gorkin's poem has been featured on other sites as well before it started getting attention more recently. Author and blogger Mark Brodinsky included the poem, which he wrote was brought to his attention by his daughter, Sophie, in April and it appeared in his post on the Huffington Post at the time too.

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This story has been updated to include more information.

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Front page image via Shutterstock.