The Cat Lady, by Laura Stamps, is a delightful and inspiring read. It follows a year in the life of Mirabella, an abstract artist living in North Carolina. The reader watches as Mirabella overcomes challenges of faith, flowers and finances in positive and life affirming ways. While I would label this an “easy read” (no difficult language or convoluted plots to sort) that is not to imply that it lacks profundity. I enjoyed “The Cat Lady” over many months, allowing myself time to set the book aside and reflect on the deeper implications of some of her spiritual inspirations, or savor the rich poetic tapestry the author weaves.
Laura Stamps dresses Mirabella’s story in a lacy frock of language that is both visually explosive and comforting. Enjoy these excerpted phrases.
“In a time of dragonflies and whippoorwills, when marigolds thrive beneath the sun’s relentless smile, and the doves dribble waterfalls of song from the shingles, I remember the moment when the silken seams of my world burst.”
“An hour before sunrise, before the sky lifts its soft black wing, a gray fox slips beneath the protective hem of the forest to scuffle with a cat in the marigolds.”
“A cricket hides in the garden beneath the window, grinding its solitary whistle, pulling the raspberry petals of sunrise closer and closer.”
“A full moon buttons this cerulean sky at midmorning like a sand dollar on the beach, blinking through the tide’s noon-wash. Five crows huddle in the street, sipping a rain puddle while the lemon shine of goldenrod splashes the pinewoods as if it were moonlight. Soon cloud-varnish slithers in from the east, polishing the day with bold strokes, satin and smoke.”
The beauty of her language is reason enough to read “The Cat Lady,” but the real treasure is the message Mirabella is learning to live:
“The longer I walk in the Spirit the more personal freedom I experience, finding life needn’t loom so difficult, forever etched with worries and uncertainties burdening the soul. I close my eyes and see the glow of my Spirit, calm and carefree, as feather-light as a meadowlark tapping the blue sequins of a September sky. To be free in the Spirit must be a matter of wings.”
I was constantly inspired, my spirit lifted, each time I lifted the book to discover more of the tangled beauty of both language and life.
More information on the award winning author and poet can be found here: www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2PLPHX5OWUCNQ and information on ordering her poetry anthologies and novels is found at www.kittyfeatherpress.blogspot.com/ .
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