PREFACE
Over the past summer, I had the joy and privilege of participating in the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop. During my time there, as the avid BTS fan I am, I started a few lines of an ekphrastic poem based on their short film, “BEGIN,” from their WINGS album. The poem itself has gone under quite a few edits, revisions, and title changes, but this is the version that I’ve settled on for this post.
The short film itself is pretty eerie, it’s part of a series of short films that BTS released during their WINGS era. This contributes to their overarching storylines in the Bangtan Universe, which stretches across many of their eras in a fictional universe filled with multiple timelines, universes, and tragedies. It’s weirdly deep and although it’s crossed into some odd territory in recent years, the original BU storyline is honestly one of my favorite things that BTS has ever created and is definitely my favorite BTS era: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life (Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa or 花樣年華).
The Bangtan Universe is a large part of what inspired me to write this poem in general. In fact, the original title I used was “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life.” While I changed this so to not cause confusion with their albums with the same title as my poem has less to do with those albums, it’s definitely something that I highly encourage people to check out. In the short film, there is a painting that particularly inspired me which BTS member Jungkook reproduced (and then I reproduced a painting of his reproduction, it’s in my K-pop art post). It is of Min Yoon-gi (the fictional character not the actual BTS member, it’s a bit confusing but essentially in the BU all of the members have a fictional character that corresponds to their real name but is entirely fictional) who has a particularly emotional and heart-wrenching storyline in the universe. I won’t spoil too much, but it’s definitely one of my favorite storylines and it’s full of angst. This is the focus inspiration of my poem and it definitely gives some context for fans of BTS who already know the story.
So without further ado, here is my poem.
(my reproduction of Jungkook’s reproduction of the painting)
A Beautiful Life
Disclaimer: this is an ekphrastic piece on the BTS WINGS Short Film #1: BEGIN, produced by HYBE Corporation
A room slides into view, cool
and bare, but for the easel
soaked in oil and gasoline
bowing with the portrait of a
boy who weeps in color.
Crimson and cobalt leak from the canvas
i’ve heard myths of red
and blue blood under skin but
paint drips in the rainbow
from a storm or
a hose, violet and turquoise
melting into fabric.
White noise and pale bones recall
schrodinger’s equation
rhythms of separate histories
beating in a singular
cacophony in
time
the boy who’s meant to be a man,
after all, his tears
forming puddles of
vibrant hues that blend
into a murky grey.
Perhaps he is not a boy after all, perhaps
it is the monochrome
shade of a rock
the cracking peel of a tangerine or
dusted keys on an old piano
stuck with the resin of time
and refusal which
of course has nothing to do with it
he mutters in denial. Do not
go so easily
smoke whispers
and clouds of flames lick
his tears charring
the pigments into limp, spidery
veins of black.
The easel splinters and the room
thickens, yet the boy
or whatever he is
remains frozen, unflinching as his lines
disintegrate backwards
ashes to ashes and
paint to blood.
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