Building Jerusalem

Dr Kevin J. Gardner is Professor of English at Baylor University, Texas. He has published numerous scholarly essays on British poetry. His books include Poems in the Porch (Continuum) Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman (Continuum) and Betjeman and the Anglican Imagination (SPCK).

A church without a poem is a steeple without a bell, a choir without a hymn. Thank you Kevin Gardner for composing such a glorious sound, and from friends old and new. It will enhance every church visitor's bliss.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionAnglican Memory and Post-War British PoetryPOEMSFleur AdcockAt Great Hampden KilpeckSimon ArmitageHarmonium Peter ArmstrongRainsCliff AshbyFountains AbbeyJuliet AykroydThe Angels of Muchelney George BarkerAt Thurgarton ChurchJohn BetjemanA Lincolnshire ChurchSt Saviour'sAberdeen ParkHighbury, London, N.Sunday Morning, King's CambridgeUffingtonCharles CausleyAt St HilarySt Protus & St Hyacinth, BlislandGlen CavalieroFenland ChurchesA Redundant ChurchGillian ClarkeTop ChurchJack ClemoIn Roche ChurchAnne CluysenaarAbout the ChurchTony ConnorSt Mark's, Cheetham HillIain Crichton SmithIn Luss ChurchyardKevin CrossleyHolland Angels at St Mary'sIn Latter DaysSimon CurtisLeaving Towcester VicarageDonald DavieThe Priory of St Saviour, Glendalough C. Day-LewisSeen from the TrainU.A. FanthorpeGreensted ChurchSt James's, Charfield'Soothing and Awful'Roy FullerYouth RevisitedRoger GarfittRites of PassageJohn GreeningA Huntingdonshire ElegyA Huntingdonshire Nocturne Geoffrey GrigsonWest WindowJohn Heath-StubbsChurchyard of Saint Mary Magdalene, Old MiltonMichael HenrySt Martin in the Field Slipper ChapelGeoffrey HillEpiphany at Saint Mary and All SaintsLoss and GainBrian HintonAll SaintsJeremy HookerSt CrossFrances HorovitzCountry AfternoonTed HughesHeptonstall Old ChurchElizabeth JenningsSomersetP.J. KavanaghWestwell Churchyard, OxfordshirePhilip LarkinChurch GoingA Stone Church Damaged by a BombPeter LeviShobdon Herbert LomasChrist ChurchSt Martin-in-the-FieldsRoland MathiasBrechfa ChapelHubert MooreCrossing the Church Andrew MotionFor NowNorman NicholsonOf this Parish John OrmondCathedral Builders Peter PorterAn Angel in Blythburgh ChurchAt Whitechurch CanonicorumThe Rider Haggard Window, St Mary's, DitchinghamNeil PowellAt Little GiddingIkenLeiston AbbeyProvidenceRodney PybusSuffolk Church Vicki RaymondBoveney ChurchPeter ReadingSt James'sAnne RidlerEdlesboroughVernon ScannellIn a City ChurchyardDavid ScottLocking the ChurchPeter ScuphamDissolutionMinsden RuleServiceStone HeadJon SilkinThe Cathedral ChairC.H. SissonIn KentKnoleMuchelney AbbeyJon StallworthyAt the Church of St John Baptist, Preston Bissett, May 1974Anne StevensonPennineSeán StreetChurchyard Knowlton, Cranborne Chase Kim TaplinFairford WindowsR.S. ThomasThe BelfryCountry ChurchAnthony ThwaiteDunkeswell AbbeyAt DunwichEcclesManhood EndThe Mole at Kilpeck Church ReformationAndrew WatermanLudham, St Catherine's Church, The Rood ScreenRowan WilliamsPlease Close this Door QuietlyClive WilmerEast Anglian ChurchyardNear WalsinghamThe Ruined AbbeyAndrew YoungThe Ruined Chapel