Predictive Text

by Crystal Warren

In a series of tender, bite-sized poems on being a writer, loneliness, faith, patriarchy, climate change, grief, and more, Crystal Warren offers up an ode to the every day. With Warren’s signature light touch, Predictive Text is sensitive, unaffected, a relief from the brash, unrelenting tumult of twenty-first century life, while tethered to deeper truths.

76 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2020

Reviews

[Mr Pink Ink · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll admit it upfront: poetry and I don’t usually see eye to eye. I often feel like I’m missing the point. Predictive Text, however, surprised me.

This is a tender, quietly reflective collection of bite-sized poems touching on writing, loneliness, faith, grief, patriarchy, climate change, and the ordinary moments that shape us. Crystal Warren writes with a light, unaffected touch that feels more like an invitation than a performance.

Most of this collection really worked for me - especially the first two-thirds, where the poems felt clear, emotionally grounded, and accessible. I did struggle a little with the final third, but the book had already earned my goodwill by then.

Standouts included “Home baked” (the one that resonated most), along with “Patriarchy 101” and “Shout”. As a South African reader, there was also something quietly affirming about reading a local voice handle such universal themes with such restraint.

4 stars — because I understood most of it and enjoyed it far more than I expected to.

[Jayne Bauling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here’s a poet who truly gets that less is more; she never labours the point or strains after a metaphor. The collection is pure essence, with the title poem a heart’s cry of bereavement.
The collection is divided into sections, my personal favourites being Predictive Text and Long Distance.