…Inside [Idiolect], Bridgman’s world of voices, witty storytelling, religious satire, and playful lyrics mixed with experimental forms, makes so much happen… Having covered life, death, compassion and humor, Bridgman finishes with ‘An Abecedary of Love’, describing how love ‘invades the voice, quadruples the pulses’ and ‘bathes and drapes every surface in light’. Idiolect as a collection does the very same.” (To read the entire review, click here and scroll down)

…He has a fondness for the long line in the vein of Ciarán Carson and some of his… poems remind me slightly of Rita Ann Higgins… [A] collection that encourages me to be braver and more daring in my own writing… P.W. Bridgman’s second collection, Idiolect, contains poetic forms, structures and compositions that are hugely varied and rich… (To read the entire review, click here.)

…Bridgman’s Idiolect offers in each of its nine sections poems with emotional depths but which are never overstated. Here is a poet to follow up on, a poet who has contributed quietly yet brilliantly to Canadian literature. But the poems reach beyond “our home and native land” because their concerns are always human, always significant, and therefore universal. (To read the entire review, click here.)

…I found his collection to be far-ranging in theme and character and with an interesting, nay idiosyncratic, range of styles. Idiolect contains quite poignant descriptions of everyday life; reflections on or adaptations inspired by writers like Al Purdy, Louis MacNeice, Philip Larkin, Andrew Marvell; an opening to Irish and English themes — this from a Vancouver-based author who has spent some time overseas; and sardonic commentary on a number of the political and social ills of our day. (To read the entire review, click here.)