title: Stardust and Fire: Tales of a Hopeful Romantic
author:  Tracy A. Seiden 
description: Reviewed by <span>Sarah Stuart</span> for <span>Readers' Favorite</span><br /><br /><span>Tracy A. Seiden's Stardust and Fire: Tales of a Hopeful Romantic comprises a collection of seventy-one poems about the many varying aspects of heterosexual love, passion, desire, attraction and romance. The first of the short pieces, "Childhood Forever," comes close to conventional rhyming poetry, but it is the only one that does. It serves almost as an introduction to the rest, which encompass the thoughts, dreams and longings of women of any age. These are all free verse: some divided into sections and others that Ms. Seiden simply allows to flow.<br /><br /> Stardust and Fire: Tales of a Hopeful Romantic is a title that captured my imagination before I opened the book and read a single word. Tracy A. Seiden held my attention; every poem led me on to the next. "Dance" is so incredibly expressive it truly does dance, as do all the pieces involving dancing. In Divine Love, the woman encourages her man to be protective, and "fuels him to be the man he was meant to be." "Peace of the Soul" echoes that theme. "Stardust" is thirty-eight flowing words, clever and utterly different. "Fire," the other title word, is best expressed in "Warrior on Fire." There is eroticism too in "Heaven's Door," "Black Magic Symphony," and "Did He Feel It."<br /><br /> The surprise was "Dark Wings Broken." My personal favorite is "Don't," a clever contradiction, or is it "A Winter's Queen," or "Reflections" and "life is a cycle, never ending"? The contention for a favorite is powerful in Stardust and Fire, and Ms. Seiden expresses herself as a "hopeful romantic" in every poem.</span>
zlib_text: WRITTEN FROM THE HEART
  
  Trisha Ashley
  
  Contents
  
    1. Acknowledgements
    2. Foreword
    3. One: In a Jiffy
    4. Two: Fluffed
    5. Three: Of Mice and Men
    6. Four: I Believe in Miracle
    7. Five: Decimated
    8. Six: Affiliations
    9. Seven: Flat
    10. Eight: Vintage Chic
    11. Nine: Insalubrious
    12. Ten: Hot Beds
    13. Eleven: Don’t Stop Me Now
    14. Twelve: Playing With My Heart
    15. Thirteen: I Should Be So Lucky
    16. Fourteen: Frozen Assets
    17. Fifteen: Past Notes
    18. Sixteen: Fêted
    19. Seventeen: Fresh Cuttings
    20. Eighteen: In Demand
    21. Nineteen: Advances
    22. Twenty: Action Man
    23. Twenty-One: A Girl’s Best Friend
    24. Twenty-Two: The Butterfly Ball
    25. Twenty-Three: Occupied Territory
    26. Twenty-Four: Dished
    27. Twenty-Five: Watering Places
    28. Twenty-Six: Mixed Signals
    29. Twenty-Seven: Overtures
    30. Twenty-Eight: Pearls Among Women
    31. Twenty-Nine: Cross Currents
    32. Thirty: On Film
    33. Thirty-One: Picture This
    34. Thirty-Two: Sour Cream
   