Shirley Satterfield

Shirley Mandel Satterfield is a Baltimore girl from way back who was raised in the rough and tumble world of a steelworkers family and writes Christian poetry, memoirs and nonfiction. She has lived to survive a life fraught with domestic violence, child abuse, and mental illness and writes to help others to survive the same kinds of things. After becoming a radiology technician, she went on to serve in the U.S. Army and later on in life attended Averett University in Danville, Virginia as a nontraditional student earning two B.A. degrees in English and journalism and was awarded the Ember Award for Excellence in Poetry by the campus literary magazine. She was also named correspondent of the Day by the Richmond Times Dispatch for a letter she wrote to the editor concerning the importance of compassionate treatment and the acceptance of the mentally ill by society.

God is Still Good

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by: Shirley Satterfield

God is Still Good.

Thank You God
for giving me strength to breathe this morning
and strength to get up after a bad night
and fix breakfast and pray and exercise my muscles on my fitness stepper.
Dead people can’t exercise their muscles,
and I’m still alive and God is still good
regardless of what happens or don’t
happen to me.
God is still good.

For Mental Health Month

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by: Shirley Satterfield

Don’t hate me
Because you say
I’m crazy.
Its not my fault
I’ve been abused,
My love for others
Been refused.
I was just a child.
My parent’s fights
Were pretty wild.
Now I suffer at age sixty six.
My life’s been such a witch.
Don’t hate me
Because you say
I’m crazy.

Even Nature Speaks of It

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by: Shirley Satterfield

Cicadas emerge
to sing joyfully for
two weeks of endless fun.
Its a two week splurge
as they fill the earth
and crunch under my feet
so I hate to go outside,
but this is their week to shine.
A male calls out to his bride,
his wife, his friend, his pride.

Even nature speaks of the great resurrection.
His resurrection.
Our resurrection.

Resurrection from sickness.
Resurrection from failure.
Resurrection to save.
Resurrection from the grave.

No reason not to be brave.