Glitter- Jane Glennie- Lucy English- UK

Although at first a simple poem it has an undercurrent of unease. The little girl wants to be ‘magical’ like Elsa in Frozen or famous like Ariana Grande. She cannot see her own worth. She also cannot see the destructive nature of glitter which filters into the eco system and is hard to eradicate. Her mother reminds her to ‘be who you are’ and that self worth is not dependent on outside forces. Her mother also reminds her that a desire to ‘rebuild the icecaps’ and ‘preserve food for the hungry’ is much more important than being covered in glitter!

2018. Video, 1000s of photographs
Poem: Glitter by Lucy English & Jane Glennie
Created for the Book of Hours project: thebookofhours.org/

Lucy English writes:
“Jane Glennie and I wanted to ‘co-write’ the poems for this poetry film. The damage that our modern society inflicts unwillingly on nature was very much in our minds. The poem can be seen as a mother/daughter conversation or as two sides of a conscience. On one side we want all the ‘sparkly’ trappings of modern life even though we know they do harm to the planet. The other voice reminds us that self worth is not dependent on what we buy and our energies should focus more on repairing eco damage rather than more acquisition. I wrote the first verse of the poem and Jane responded to this. In the film I like the contrast between our two voices. Mine, wistful and slow and Jane’s, sharp and brisk which starts with the abrupt ‘No’!”