Heart Shadows



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *






* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


BATTLE CRY

I'm a soldier of the Lamb
You hold me within your hand
O' beloved I AM
What's my quest today?

Once I sought you near and far
Weary searched for where you are
Oh, but now I clearly see
You are here with me.

Where shall we go today
Who will we love today
How shall we help today
As we journey on?

What difference does it make
Whichever road we take
Together we will go
Walking to and fro.

I'm a soldier of the Lamb
I am safe here in your hand
O' beloved I AM
I will serve today.

I will serve today

CHORUS (After Each Verse)

O' beloved I AM
In your strength I ever stand
I will follow you today
On to victory

Jerry L. Denman
2008



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


MISSISSIPPI MEMORIES

In every aging hunter's heart there dwells an endless dream
Of crisp clear autumn mornings and the rippling of a stream
Where frost like diamonds twinkles on the sage grass in a field
As birds that greet a new day break the stillness with their trills.

I've walked in such a wonderland and thank my God above
For the memories and the friendships enabled by His love.
And so it is with thankful heart I pen these inept lines
That can never really bring to view the pleasures in my mind.

It seems so many years ago when first I understood
What blessings seemed to issue from that cabin in the woods.
That musty little tree house with its mothballs and its mice
Would for the briefest time each year become our paradise.

When the water had been carried in, and the propane for the stove,
And all the food was packed away in its treasure trove,
Each piece of hunting gear was placed at just the proper mark
For rising well before the dawn and dressing in the dark.

After supper talk would turn to tales of seasons past,
Of monster bucks and old friends gone- the memories that last.
Then each stand would be selected and analyzed with care
For there can only be one opening day and each will spend it there.

Roy would take young Seth along and hunt the cotton field,
Just a short way out of camp in case the boy got chilled
Jody would be on Pipeline 2 above Alligator Lake,
While Rob would still hunt on the ridge that ran up to the gate.

Jerry chose across Orr's Creek if the water didn't rise,
Where the panther roams the Cyprus swamp and wild geese fill the skies.
Where the big Blue Herons build their nests and the beavers toil away,
Rick will greet the morning sun and watch the gray squirrels play.

The long night finally comes to end with everything in place,
And one by one each hunter leaves- a smile upon his face.
Forth beneath a star lit sky each eager hunter trod,
To wait and watch, be still and know the glory of His God

Anticipation fills each heart as each one nears his place
Cry of bird or snapping twig makes the heart to race
Breath clouds rise to meet the dawn as eyes probe shadowed glade
Perhaps today will be the day that history is made.

When the day has met the night we gather once again
At the deer camp in the woods where it all began.
To rest and plan tomorrow's hunt and feast on tenderloin,
As each man shares his memories of what the day enjoined.

They say that heaven is a place where nothing can dismay-
A place of happiness and joy- a place of endless day.
Forgive me Lord when I recall what we all understood,
Heaven seemed to us much like that cabin in the woods.

Jerry L. Denman
2003



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Odyssey Of Victory

By Major Jerry L. Denman

The Eagle soars above the rocky heights
And screams defiance to his mortal foe
His talons stained from a thousand fights
He seeks the hidden Dragon far below.

Twas scarce a year ago the Eagle came
To build his nest in this ancient land
As his sire from out of Europe's flame
Carved immortality upon the heart of man.

From off the China Sea the Eagle flew
Into the blazing rays of Cam Ranh's sun
Sweet hope within this land was born anew
The Odyssey of Victory had begun.

By land and air the Eagle made his way
From Nha Trang to Qui Nhon's rustic shore
Then to the lofty pass by cruel An Khe
Where once the heart of France the Dragon tore.

The Eagle watched and others came to stand
Against injustice born in battle's flame
The Eagle shaped the destiny of man
As Highland and Gibraltar spread his fame.

Sayonara struck another blow
As Korea came to share the honored quest
Then at Phan Rang beneath the sun's bright glow
He paused beside the sea to carve his nest.

But scarcely had he from his noble beak
Washed away the taste of Dragon gore
Than toward Bien Hoa on mighty wings he streaked
And over Ben Cat-Lai Khe's Checkerboard he soared.

As the new year waxed Van Buren was the cry
To Tuy Hoa the Eagle came to purge
As ripened grain reached freely toward the sky
The Ninety-Fifth sang a mournful dirge.

Scarcely had it drug away its dead
When the Eagle once again came swooping down
On Harrison the Ninety-Fifth it's said
Spilled yet again its blood upon the ground.

Fillmore followed swiftly in Phu Yen
Again the cunning Eagle claimed his toll
Clandestinely the fray he entered in
And from the wary Dragon darkness stole.

On to Phan Thiet and Austin II
Then Nhon Co and the steaming jungle heat
Where the Eagle broke the Dragon's thrust in two
And forced him back again in full retreat.

From Cheo Reo and a sea of mud
The Eagle turned his eyes back to the North
Toward Dak To and another kind of flood
And sat about to draw the Dragon forth.

Hawthorne will the world remember long
Where the acid smoke of battle waived
Around the red hot guns of Tumorong
Where the Twenty-Fourth lies in unmarked graves.

To the valley Dak Kan Tan and fiery hell
The storied NVA had come to die
After six unending days the Dragon fell
And the mighty Eagle raised the victory cry.

Beauregard gave the Eagle rest
Then back to Tuy Hoa and Nathan Hale
He ripened grain did from the Dragon wrest
And drove him far beyond the fertile vale.

In John Paul Jones he pushed him further still
And made the valley safe for peaceful men
Till when Seward guarded from surrounding hills
A bounteous harvest there was gathered in.

Yet once again the Dragon's angry horde
Dared to rise against the Eagle's might
But its Fifth Battalion fell before the sword
And the Ninety-Fifth lost its will to fight.

As the year drew swiftly to its close
In the central highlands round Kontum
The Eagle high above the mountain rose
And called the bloody Dragon to his doom.

'Come and fight, ye who would oppress
Join with me in mortal conflict now
I draw my strength from mighty Freedom's breast
Hearken to me as I make this vow."

For mankind's sake came I to this land
Here I am and here I will to stay
And free men with me freely here will stand
Till we the Dragon, tyranny, do slay."

[This poem appeared in the February 6, 1967 edition of 'Diplomat and Warrior,' the weekly paper of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division]



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Unable to hunt during the 1994 deer season due to bypass surgery, I visited Roy and Marj Sawyer in Sardis, Mississippi in January 1995 where the season was still open. It was warm and rainy, and though not expecting the deer to be moving much, I told Roy that I would like to sit in a deer-stand.

Roy took me to an elevated box-stand on the north side of a bean field. The field was about fifty yards wide; began about 125 yards to the left (east) of the stand; passed in front of the stand and then turned south about 150 yards west of the stand, meandering along the west side of a wood line and then a Cypress swamp. Roy suggested I keep an eye on a cocklebur patch at the end of the field to my left where a nice buck had been seen using a trail that cut through the cocklebur patch. We agreed to meet at the truck after dark, and Roy moved to another stand about 500 yards away.

I enjoyed watching birds and being outdoors, but no deer entered the field. The sun sat, and the shadows were darkening the field when I noticed movement to my left. Looking through the scope, I saw a black animal I thought might be a Labrador retriever moving through the cocklebur patch. As I observed through my rifle scope, I noticed it wasn't moving nose down and sniffing out the ground like a hunting dog.

Knowing it wasn't a deer, I exchanged my rifle for binoculars. I could see the large black animal moving slowly but steadily, and, emerging from the cockleburs, it paused on the opposite side of the field from me, and then turned down the bean field heading in my direction. To my astonishment, I saw that it was a very large cat, about knee high, with a body about three feet long. It carried a tail at least as long as its body horizontally- perhaps curved slightly upward...

The creature was about 10 yards from the far side of the field and moved along the south side of the field in my direction. Its movements were smooth and feline. It would walk about fifteen or twenty feet and stop with its muzzle raised as if scenting the air. It continued directly past me and was about 40 yards away at its closest point. I continued to watch it through the binoculars until it reached a point near where the field turned south towards the Cypress Swamp. By that time, it was so dark, I couldn't see it.

I sat in the stand for about fifteen minutes longer thinking about what I had seen and about having to get down out of that stand in the dark with a large feline predator in the area. Roy and I met along the trail back to the truck. When I began to describe what I had seen, Roy said, 'You saw the panther."

My father told me stories when I was a small boy growing up on the edge of the Mississippi delta about how his father who was a country doctor in Tallahatchie County used to hear panthers squall when he was making night calls on horseback. He also told me stories about deer camps in Issaquena County before I was born where, when a panther squalled as night settled, my older brother would run out of the tent, fire his pop-gun, and run back inside.

A friend who had heard about my experience discussed it with a game biologist. He was told that no panthers exist in Mississippi, and though some of our feline wildlife can reach significant size, none of them are black. Though other sightings have been reported, no indisputable evidence of the existence of panthers in Mississippi exists. That sure leaves me with a problem. I know what I saw, and I thank God for the experience. I only wish I had had a good camera on that magic day in January 1995, or I wish I had had a biologist to walk that dark trail with me when I came down out of the 'Panther stand.'

This wonderful experience in the field inspired the following poem.

THE BLACK GHOST

Can men see beyond the veil
Of cold and stark reality,
That ghostly world of phantoms pale
From which voices call to me?
We taste, we see, we touch we smell
The things that fill our conscious sphere,
And yet within my heart there dwells
A hint of things that linger near.

In nineteen hundred ninety-four
In our rustic mountain home
I stood before death's silent door
Yet turned I back to journey on.
On borrowed time the New Year came
As a Phoenix from its grave,
Hope reborn and joy reclaimed,
Unfurled the feathers of its days

As I sat painting with my eyes
Upon the canvas of my soul
The healing scene that God supplies
To warm the heart and make one whole,
A phantom clothed in fading day
Intruded on that peaceful scene
It moved then paused as seeking prey
Seeing all, itself unseen

Slowly on its journey came
Sleek black ghost from days far gone
Panther black as devil's mien
With measured steps it hunted on.
Till shrouded in night it passed beyond
The simple realm of mortal eyes
Silent it came and silent gone
It waits beyond the starlit skies.

Jerry L. Denman
December 2006



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


THE QUEST

In the autumn of my span
I oft recall the toilsome days
The crags I scaled with bleeding hands
The burning sun that parched the land
And seared my brow in desert ways.

The slate gray clouds that winter cast
With icy spray on upturned face
My soul cried out and yet alas
In the stormy winter blast
I could not find a hiding place.

Then one day a world apart
Without the strength to struggle on
On bended knee with heavy heart
Unable a new quest to start
My broken spirit turned toward home.

Why, O' Lord my being cried
Would you not calm my troubled mind?
I would have moved both earth and sky
Or gladly for thy cause have died
Just a blissful rest to find.

Do not upon great quests rely
His precious Word revealed to me.
He would that you should daily die.
In serving him who passes by
Tis where thy cross of peace will be.

Though through life I journey still
I count not one step a loss.
Filled with joy that serving gives
Seeking one more life to fill
With love that lies beyond the cross.

Jerry L. Denman
12/20/1983



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


WEST POINT FOREVER

Until the last wave recedes from shores of time
Stars will part the velvet night
Men will take up sword and shield
And love and die for Truth and right




* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Bob Soper, 14 May 2009

WEST POINTING UP


Us

And waits for

A warrior finds sweet rest,

Shadow softens, kissed by morning sun

A gentle breeze moves across the western plains.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


THE COMPASS

Some would say we've lost our way
This America the Bold
But we who seek would to them say
The story we live does yet unfold

We still seek as those who came
With much or little to our shore
Vastly different yet the same
With hope and blood we long for more

From the West our DUTY calls
Shore to shores and heart to hearts
Liberty scorns confining walls
Irresistible once it starts

To the South HONOR stands
Its towering obelisk marks the way
Freedom is all that we demand
We seek to give not take away

To the East COUNTRY lies
Where our liberty first was born
At Concorde's bridge our banner flies
And beckons all with us to join

A still voice whispers,
'Where's your star?
These compass points mark your lands.
They have surely brought you far
But you still feel the potter's hands,
And TRUTH is what your judge demands.'

Jerry L. Denman
2012



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


West Point 1955 Home Page

Personal Web Pages

All rights reserved - West Point Class of 1955