Obsessed with Pipework

Obsessed with Pipework is still going strong (despite only very infrequently updating this site)

The August 2026 issue number 115 is in progress, with space for more poems hint, hint! So please send us a few poems to look at.

even more hint, hint: we could do with a few more subscribers. A year’s issues by post to a UK address will stilll set you back a mere £15.00. Details of how & where to subscribe will be found further back/down this page

if in doubt, ring me at 07942 739596.

Charles, editor

There are still blank pages in the forthcoming August issue 115 of OWP – Obsessed With Pipework magazine.

If you have unpublished poems, why not send up to six for consideration for one of the vacant ‘spots’?

Email as a Word document to: owpeditors@outllok.com

Don’t forget to include your postal address and a fascinating editable bio note.

Good luck



C M Buckland
Sue Burge
Lucy Calder
Myra Connell
Anna Dalton
Philip Dunkerley
Lucius Falkland
Lydia Harris
Andy Hopkins
Hiram Larew
Karen Macfarlane
Laura McKee
Mo Murrie
Miriam Patrick
Matthew Paul
Ariel Seraphina
Sarah Sibley
Thea Smiley
Helena Steel
Julia Stothard
Laura Strickland
Pam Thompson
Joan Thorley
Paul Truan
Jude Willetts

OWP number 101 is now with St Andrew’s Printers (at last!)

Here’s what will be in it. . . .

Gail Ashton: What we salvaged from the wood; Nothing is as emerald as the snowdrop’s hidden eye
Victor Buehring: Aquarelles; Property vs Human Dignity; To the Moon
Peter Donnelly: The Plough; Red
Marguerite Doyle: Blue; Fairground; Shoulder Joint Exercise Wheel; The Accidental poet; Transition and the Muse
Josh Ekroy: Can mole-rats sense magnetic fields with their tiny eyes?
Jeff Gallagher: The Beloved
Katharine Goda; Against the Wind; I want to write
John Grey: Dream woman/dream man
Sue Holland: Into Nature
Glenn Hubbard: Winchester; He encourages the fern to forsake its
disquieting coil
Chris Kinsey: Earth Pelt; Hedging
Ewan Mackinnon: The High Cost of Living
Dave Medd: Metamorphosis
C P Nield: Cast; Nowhere land
Amanda Oosthuizen: When my Clothes Disappeared
Edmund Prestwich: Bed and Breakfast; Salome
Kevin Reid: In the Seventies; Battery
Jenny Robb: In the presence of snow; Kestrel and crow
Ali Rowland: Sea Swing
Sheila Spence: Is anyone there?
Anne Symons: python skin
Joan Thorley: Candle; Y is for
John Tustin: Veins
Catherine Whittaker: Shearing; Shoe Choices; Written in the Stars
Martin Zarrop: Rag Doll; My Childhood.

• I almost forgot to mention the stunning cover design by co-editor Penny Sharman!

* OBSESSED WITH PIPEWORK *

number 100 – the milestone issue marking 25 years of publication – is now with the printers.

Here is a list of the rather splendid poems you will find within:-

Alan Cohen: Hedge, Waking;

Alicia Stubbersfield: My First Wedding;

Andrew Hopkins: Kettle Broth,

Lucozade;

Andy Skitt: Hide/Seek/Find;

Anthony Powers: Caribbean dream,

Meet me;

Ben Banyard: Goldfish,

Ice,

C P Nield: Cast,

Nowhere land, Word Witch;

Carla Scarano D’Antonio: Villa Torlonia revisited;

Deborah Harvey: Here be dragons;

Denni Turp: On the Beach;

Diana Sanders: First impressions on the 09.47 from St. Pancras to Paris,

Music;

Elizabeth Barrett: Moon,

Oak Mother;

Emily Wills: The Eye of the Storm,

Tyndale’s Monument;

Finola Scott: Better than hot chocolate;

Hannah Linden: Re-birth;

Helena Nelson: Permit,

Television, sex and my mother;

Helen Heery:Ivy-leaved Toadflax;

Hélène Demetriades: A Confession, Starry Night;

Huw Gwynn-Jones: Miles;

J. S. Watts: First of the Last Days;

John Foggin: Lamentable;

Julia Webb: And maybe I became orange, I learned to speak by listening to the trees;

Lucy Heuschen: Our daughter in the

Multiverse,

Support Group;

Mark Connors: Recovery;

Mat Riches: Spud ,

Wetsuit;

Myra Connell: From the train;

Rachael Clyne: Waiting for Bread,

Wild;

Rowena Sommerville: Oh, My Mothers;

Ruth Aylett: Anthropocene;

Sue Kauth: The Men;

Sue Kindon: The Dawn of Space

Exploration;

Sue Spiers: Carpet Bag;

Susan Castillo: Sith;

Susan Utting: The Colour of Rain;

Thea Smiley; Considering a link between Poetry and Science;

Tim Suermondt: Pissarro keeps it going, Simplicity.

And don’t forget . . . “The one after ninety-nine” special offer:

While stocks last a free copy of Obsessed with Pipework magazine number 99 will go to the next couple of dozen new subscribers to OWP – to celebrate our forthcoming 25 year milestone issue 100.

Liz Adams Monday,
Cindy Botha Fledged, Night-lights,
Lorraine Carey Scarves,
Yuan Changming Directory of destinies,
Susan Tak Chiu Chessell Pomegranate arils,
A C Clarke Twitching,
Holly Day Invitations to a murder, Negotiations over lunch,
Matthew Duggan Firewood, Our fingers became string to build more rope,
Paul Fenn It’s your funeral, Over the net, Pegged,
Sally Festing Skylarking,
Pam Gormally Some doubts, Tardy, Urban landscape, Will,
Natascha Graham War’s orphan & the sound of silence, Weather for the blind,
Ann Heathcote And I will plant my garden with red gladioli, She has no religion,
Barbara Hickson Parallel, The sleeper and the selenophile,
Hilaire A daydreamer washes the dishes, What would success look like?,
Jenny Hockey Love charm for lost children,
L Kiew Cut fruit, Ivy in the garden,
John Lynch Technical drawing, Voices,
Shirley Nicholson That moment, The blackbird that did not sing, Floodwater,
Marion Oxley A dog named Eris, In Pursuit of stardust,
Miriam Patrick Fast and furious,
Marg Roberts Unexpected,
Paul Stephenson In praise of the Upstairs family, The calling, Tuesday’s fainting in Loblaw’s Bakery,
Michael W Thomas Yes,
John Tustin Atheism,
Rod Whitworth Late, Memory,
Merryn Williams I saw my rival , Simulacrum, The gatekeeper,
Roddy Williams Postcard from Avondale Park.

PRESS RELEASE

“OBSESSED WITH PIPEWORK” – the May (Beltane) issue 98 is almost ready to send out to subscribers & contributors.
Here is the contents list:-

John Arnold: Murnau Garden, Fire at full moon;
C.M. Buckland: Dressing up box;
Julie Burke: Picking, Do urban gulls dream of the ocean?;
Nancy Charley: A lesser light to govern the night;
Amanda Coleman White: Digging for stars, Into the pot;
Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana: Bickerton’s Way, The Japanese gardener;
S. C. Flynn: Omens;
Linda Goulden: Backwater, Spring, almost, What to do on a beach;
Robert Hamberger: Group of Bathers, On first looking into Alvarez’s ‘The New Poetry’, Millbeck;
Audrey Henderson: Fair Isle, My mother looked like Ava Gardner;
Simon Kew: Drift netting;
Margaret Joy Livingston: The afterlife of Echo, It’s a little-known fact that my mother was a changeling, A good night for flying;
John Lynch: A cup of tea, Storytime, I wanted logs from my father;
Gemma Mills McGrath: Alcina, Moon, Dark clouds over Oldham, Pantry love (Olbers’ Paradox);
Ivan McGuiness: Abstract, Brass bookends, The manger;
Mike Mcnamara: What was it?
Dan Raphael: Without a thermostat;
Maggie Reed: Juxtaposition, Visit Morecambe, Yarmouth;
Daniel Richardson: First thing Monday morning, Innocent acrobat
Sarah Salway: Second flowering, Stone Star;
Alex Toms: The lost wives of Candy Island
Joan Thorley: Questions about breakfast;
Christian Ward: Sea fishing, Starfish, The day…;
Howard Wright: Please alight here, Arrivals, Force of habit;
Alessio Zanelli: Why

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER , the next issue of OWP is almost ready to go to the printers. Here is the contents list:-

Stephen Bone: Apple, Camaraderie of the Traffic Jam, Clean break.

Vuyelwa Carlin: Arachne, Eurydice, Narcissus.

Christine Curtis: Extreme Housework, I’m getting too old for this, The Angel of the City.

Peter Datyner: Socks for gloves.

Fiona Donaghey: Are you an alchemist or a person? Lonely slowly moving.

Elaine Dunn: All the colours, Astro-logic, The four seasons of a poem, The reasons.

Andy Eycott: On such a sunny day.

Annie Fisher Mountain Lion, Rejoice in the Lambs.

Juliet Fossey Clacton-on-Sea, Composting the Thesaurus.

George Freek: I stare into the darkness, So many unknowns.

Mandy Haggith: Remembering Brisbane, Rimu tree.

David Heidenstam: Et in Arcadia Ego, Where you live.

Claire Louise Hunt: Furloughed, The last supper.

Sue Kauth: Evening Meal, Pursuit.

Michael Laskey: At Home.

Cheryl Pearson: Superstition.

Ann Preston Oxford Botanic Garden 34

Michael Pullman: Road runner, Military planners deploy AI . . .

Martin Reed: A Picture of Burnham-on-sea, Lesson Plan, Soundtrack.

Gwen Sayers: a forest witch passes, Bird Call, Notes from a Centaur’s Curator, Seascapes at the Interface, Winter Tides.

Fiona Sinclair: Future Conditional, Snow.

Simon Wilson: Another life, The murder of Don Quixote