(Basilisk Press, 1976)
Review by Helen Cooper in Motheroot Journal.
The title poem, “Entering Another Country” is dedicated to Eli Bodi Enzer, who died. There are exuberant, rich landscapes of imagined travel, journeys into the visual worlds of Grandma Moses and Rousseau, and the painful realization that what the poet means by travel is change and growth, the raw experience of self-birthing. Here Ortner connects with her female heritage. It is a courageous poem of breaking out, and the unfamiliar terrain into which this takes her almost robs the poet of speech.