What is glitter?

Glitter is a word that I use to describe something that catches my attention in a connective and salient way. It is something I carry forward, may it be for a stretch of time or for life.

A page from the fascinatingly cryptic Voynich Manuscript, one of my largest sources of glitter.

Maybe the closest synonym would be inspiration, something that spurs or contributes to a conversation one has in their own head and which they can choose to take outside of it, but I tend to think that this word feels too heavy. To me, inspiration feels like a muse or a focal point, something which is considered to great lengths or used as a jumping point, something which motivates and is held almost to the esteem of the sacred. In my experience, rarely does the work I do feel like it was inspired by a single catalyst. In fact, sometimes my inspirations actually feel like they’re holding me back. I tend to turn them into constant sources of comparison that often serve as paralyzers rather than motivators.

The word glitter is based on a poem I wrote which ends with the line, “You left your glitter on me.” The poem is about an experience of passion, a day which left me feeling changed in a way that confused me. The glitter refers to the positive mark that experience left on my life, the aspects of it that I continue to draw strength and motivation from even though, in retrospect, it might have been an insignificant relationship. Glitter is the parts of others which they have shared and which I have connected with. Glitter is the parts of others that I feel have become parts of myself, even if it’s just a couple specks riding on the shoulders of my jacket for a night. Glitter can be small but it tends to stick around.

A portrait of Anton Chekhov, one of my favorite writers.

Whether it be for life or just during the bounds of a single project, glitter is an essential part of my writing process as well as my general life.