Gundulph's Tower West Malling Abbey Poem by James Tipp

Like a giant sentinel it stands oblivious of time
The knights who built this sacred place long dead
Yet here it stands a marker for another time and place
Hell fire and hopes of heaven were part of its purpose
To avoid one and to gain the other, for all time
Sticks and carrots, incentives, excommunication a fear
Today the churches are excommunicated by society
Dwindling congregations oblivious of the church’s role
God is all love and care and the sticks have been broken
What will stand from our age for the age of the future
What will our legacy of only love bequeath?