Book Land Poem by Sumita Jetley

In a quiet town, on a quiet street,
Ayesha's bookstore stood—small, discreet.
Shelves filled with stories, dusty and old,
But few ever asked for the ones untold.

Most came in, chasing trends on the rise,
The latest bestsellers, easy on the eyes.
But tucked in the back, hidden from view,
Were stories of voices that nobody knew.

One day a boy, Kabir by name,
Stepped in, and his words lit a flame.
"I'm looking for something that's hard to find,
A book that tells of a different kind."

Ayesha, curious, found it with care,
An old book that had long sat there.
"What's this about? " she asked, intrigued,
His answer? A spark that her soul believed.

"It's about a person, who didn't change all,
But changed one world, which wasn't small."
His eyes shone bright, as his words took flight,
That night Ayesha couldn't sleep right.

She tossed and turned, and then she knew,
Her store had played a part in the view—
Selling what's loud, but silencing grace,
Ignoring the stories that could shift the space.

Next morning, early, with purpose and fire,
She emptied the shelves, set her sights higher.
She built a new section, bold and proud,
For voices that never shouted loud.

She called it The Hidden Stories space,
For books and authors who'd lost their place.
Not lost in talent, or in heart,
But lost in a system, from the start.

She wrote a post, shared her thought,
"How many stories have we forgot?
We shape the world by what we choose,
And these are stories we can't afford to lose."

The world listened, first just a few,
But soon the wave of voices grew.
#HiddenStoriesChallenge took its flight,
Books once buried now in the light.

People shared stories of pain and love,
Of worlds below and skies above.
Of cultures, struggles, victories too,
And slowly the world saw something new.

Celebrities joined, influencers cheered,
Authors wept, for now they were heard.
Bookstores shifted, schools took note,
A movement in stories, they all wrote.

The media buzzed, the people came,
Ayesha's bookstore lit with fame.
Not for the money, not for the sale,
But for the stories that now prevailed.

Oprah herself called it a shift,
A revolution, a global lift.
Bookstores worldwide embraced the call,
And stories once small now stood tall.

Ayesha? She didn't seek the throne,
But she built a world from her own stone.
And Kabir? That boy? His words took flight,
He changed one life, but lit the night.

For sometimes it's not the grandest feat,
But the smallest act that's truly sweet.
Changing one person's world, it seems,
Can ripple out into bigger dreams.

So if you ask, what started it all?
A boy, a book, and a story small.
Ayesha dared to break the mold,
And in the end, she changed the world.