This kind of magic changes you when you touch it.

A quick note: the video here is the most recent performance; I did also share this one right when the poem first came out. Thanks to Button Poetry for capturing it!

I know you’re not supposed to explain the poem before sharing it. But I also never liked the notion that poetry is a puzzle to be solved. For me, it’s more about expression and communication, so here are a few brief framing notes:

• This is a contrapuntal poem. So it’s one poem, set next to a second poem, that can also be read side-by-side as a third poem.
• The first part is about BTS, a Korean pop group. If you know, you already know. If you don’t, I share some recommended listening below.
• The second part is about Warhammer 40k, a dystopian, ultra-violent, sci-fi series of tabletop games, video games, and novels. The 40k refers to it being set (more-or-less) 40,000 years in the future.

During the first few years of the pandemic, I listened to a lot of BTS and played a lot of the video game series Total War: Warhammer (which isn’t actually set in the 40k universe, but opened the door to that lore for me), and ended up trying to write two poems about these pieces of pop culture that were so helpful to me in very dark times. Eventually, I figured out that I was actually writing one poem—that juxtaposing the most joyful and most nihilistic pop culture I could think of could be a doorway into thinking more deeply about hope and collectivity. The contrapuntal is a weird form, but it just made sense for this concept.

I wrote this before BTS announced that they were going on hiatus in order to begin their mandatory military service. The militaristic imagery in the piece might make it seem like it’s some kind of commentary on that, but it’s not intentional. I could imagine someone writing that poem, but I leave that to more appropriate and talented writers.

I assume that the venn diagram between BTS fans and 40k fans is quite small, and maybe no one will “get” or like this poem. But sometimes you have to write the thing that’s just for you.

A final note on the text: I’ve included the traditional, side-by-side version below, but I’ve ALSO included a separate block of text for the three poems as separate pieces. I did this because as someone who primarily writes in order to perform, there are a few moments in the poem that just kind of “work” better when performed aloud than on the page, especially concerning punctuation and emphasis.

The video is embedded above; here is the image of the poem’s proper layout + text of the poem below it:

BTS 40k

“An army can meet an army.” – Marge Piercy¹

BTS
To run in all directions but home. To sing because it matters.
We choose to believe, even when life speaks otherwise. Music
in the air, a swelling arena of stories: forever, we are young.²
A song written for us, now ours to return to the source, the heart,
beating louder with no way to guard it.³ So don’t. Let go. Dance.
Call it clarity: truth louder than bombs,⁴ but rooted in the quiet
before building, and building—a purple sun rises. Light
on our hands, a reminder of all that brings us together:
The fact that we can hold what I cannot, like fire, alive
in our palms—not to worship, to carry in the dark. As we march,
we sing. And when the wave comes, oh, let us light up the night.⁵

40k
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.⁶ A story
mutates into faith: a tide of hungry gods met with phantom hands.
Falling in numberless waves; no trumpet sounds but we hear it:
blood humming in and outside, the inevitable war drum pulse.
This kind of magic changes you when you touch it. Call it a gift.⁷
Listen: a chorus of chainsaws, hammers; there is so much to break
on a world where there are no heroes, no glory—only the dirt,
the fight, the work, our daemons, the gravity of despair:
a sentient force. When all hope is lost, hold a single holy bolt⁸
to the source of all stories, and plant a seed where silence reigns.

BTS 40k
To run in all directions but home. To sing because it matters
in the grim darkness of the far future. There is only war: a story
we choose to believe even when life speaks otherwise. Music
mutates into faith, a tide of hungry gods met with phantom hands
in the air, a swelling arena of stories: forever, we are young.
Falling in numberless waves; no trumpet sounds but we hear it:
a song written for us, now ours to return to the source, the heart,
blood humming in and outside, the inevitable war drum pulse
beating louder with no way to guard it. So don’t let go. Dance.
This kind of magic changes you when you touch it. Call it a gift.
Call it clarity: truth louder than bombs, but rooted in the quiet.
Listen: a chorus of chainsaws, hammers; there is so much to break
before building, and building—a purple sun rises.⁹ Light
on a world where there are no heroes, no glory—only the dirt
on our hands, a reminder of all that brings us together:
the fight, the work, our daemons, the gravity of despair,
the fact that we can hold what I cannot, like fire, alive:
a sentient force, when all hope is lost. Hold a single holy bolt
in our palms. Not to worship, to carry in the dark, as we march
to the source of all stories and plant a seed. Where silence reigns,
we sing. And when the wave comes, oh, let us light up the night.¹⁰

NOTES:

1. From the poem, The Low Road.
2. At a 2019 BTS concert at London’s Wembley Stadium, fans surprised the group with a mass serenade of their song Young Forever.
3. From the BTS song, Permission to Dance.
4. From the BTS song, Louder Than Bombs.
5. From the BTS song, Mikrokosmos.
6. Warhammer 40k’s tagline: In The Grim Darkness of the Far Future There is Only War.
7. In Warhammer lore, magic is connected to chaos; those who are not skilled or careful enough in their use of magic may be warped by it, given “gifts” like extra hands, eyes, etc.
8. In Warhammer lore, space marines carry projectile weapons called bolters. Their ammunition: Bolts.
9. BTS has been associated with the color purple for years, and Purple Sun (of Xereus, of Shyish) is a damage-dealing spell in Warhammer lore.
10. Structurally, this poem is inspired by J-Hope’s verse in Young Forever, where he has an 8-bar verse, but actually raps 9 bars. To mirror that, the BTS half of the contrapuntal has one extra line.

BTS 40k: The Zine

The poem ended up being the perfect length for the 8-page foldy zine layout that I love so much (find all of my zines here). I don’t have the capacity to mail them out, but you can have one if you see me out in the world at a performance, and I’ll share the digital version here once it’s up. Her are the IG slides as a preview:

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A post shared by Kyle Tran Myhre aka Guante (@guantesolo)

Recommended Listening

I know it’s a cliché, but I’m going to say it anyway: BTS is one of those groups whose biggest singles aren’t always their best songs. So if you just search for them on a music platform, the top ten songs that you’re served—and no disrespect to fun tracks like Butter and Dynamite—aren’t necessarily the ones that I think capture what makes the group so special. Here are seven personal favorites:

• Save Me. A great song, but also one of my favorite music videos of all time. If one K-pop stereotype is that it’s all overproduced and bombastic, this stripped-down, single shot video is a fantastic counter-example.
• Black Swan. This was the song/video that really opened the door for me and made me a fan. It’s beautiful, but it’s also weird, in a good way—if another k-pop stereotype is that it’s all samey/generic (as if US pop isn’t… but that’s another story), this stands in stark contrast.
• Spring Day. Arguably (like everything on this list) the best example of what BTS is capable of, musically, lyrically, and visually. A powerful song with a powerful story behind it. Plus the music video references both “Snowpiercer” and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.”
• Run. In a ten-year discography, not every song on every album is going to be amazing, and I think some of their earliest work shows the group still finding itself. This song, to me, is a kind of watershed moment where things really come together.
• The Truth Untold. I love ballads, and this is one of their best, a song that really showcases the vocal line. The link here is to the studio version, but there are some really good “unofficial” live videos out there too.
• Mikrokosmos. I’m a lyrics person, so I appreciate subtitles on internet videos, as well as online resources like doolset lyrics. Paying attention to the lyrics pays off on songs like this.
• Run BTS: (Choreo/Dance Practice Video). I’m specifying here: the song itself is fun, but the choreo video is just breathtaking. Find similar videos for songs like On and J-Hope’s solo track More.
• Honorable mentions: For this list, I leaned away from solo songs, collaborations, covers, etc., but here are a few favorites: Balming Tiger’s Sexy Nukim featuring RM, Jin’s Moon, Suga (as Agust D)’s Daechwita, V’s Winter Bear, Jimin’s Lie, J-Hope’s Mama, Jungkook’s Still With You, plus covers like Coldplay’s Fix You and Big Bang’s If You. The list could go on and on. Dive in and explore.

Here’s a playlist of all the songs/videos I just mentioned:

Ending ‘Ment

I hope we don’t just consider the future as grim darkness…there are still many pages left in the story about us. We shouldn’t talk like the ending’s already been written. – Kim “V” Taehyung, from BTS’ remarks at the United Nations General Assembly in the fall of 2021