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          Hedy Habra’s collection of poems, The Taste of the Earth, speaks with “caressing syllables and fragrant language.” Habra’s poems are tense, “heavy with memories”, full of images drawn from the bleak, vivid memories of the civil war in Lebanon. Her poems are redolent with Egyptian, Syrian, and Lebanese mysticism and lyricism. Habra’s poetic language is unique, rich, and powerful. Her imagination is boundless, succinct, poignant. Her “dormant well” rekindles memories of trauma, nostalgia, and loss. Habra expresses elegantly her pain and suffering. Her poems are flying carpets that take you on a journey to the Middle East.  It invites all your senses. It makes you breathe in the scents of the Jacaranda, thyme, oleander, lemon, and Damascus’ dark tea and pastries. It makes you listen to the sound of creeks, gunshot, and “the throbbing under the earth”. These poems embark the reader on synesthetic journeys.