Comments on: Poetic Truth – Dana Shuster Never Served http://www.poems-and-poetry.com/news/vietnam-shrapnel-truth A blog about poetry and literature Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:53:13 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: tovorinok http://www.poems-and-poetry.com/news/vietnam-shrapnel-truth/comment-page-1#comment-6281 tovorinok Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:20:17 +0000 http://www.poems-and-poetry.com/news/vietnam-shrapnel-truth#comment-6281 Hello Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck! Bye Hello

Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck!

Bye

]]> By: Ron http://www.poems-and-poetry.com/news/vietnam-shrapnel-truth/comment-page-1#comment-660 Ron Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:35:40 +0000 http://www.poems-and-poetry.com/news/vietnam-shrapnel-truth#comment-660 I also wonder whether Ms. Shuster's poetry would have been effective had she presented them as a "heartfelt tribute". For "Hello David" this would most likely have been the case given the time period during which this particular poem was first seen at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC in 1982. But all-in-all her poetry is of mediocre quality which leads me to wonder if she would have received the minor acclaim over the past 20+ years had she not continued and expanded the false claim that she was a 2-tour Vietnam nurse. The issue - the betrayal - is that in making this false claim Ms. Shuster became privy to the private personal conversations of true Vietnam nurses and other Veterans who were attempting to deal with the traumas of their Vietnam experiences - an entitlement to which she otherwise would have been totally exempt. In turn Ms. Shuster undoubtedly used the content of these conversations as the basis for her writing. Seems one could relate this to a psychiatrist writing verse based on the privileged communications with a patient. Perhaps I am "old school" but to me this does far exceed ANY parameters of poetic license. I also wonder whether Ms. Shuster’s poetry would have been effective had she presented them as a “heartfelt tribute”. For “Hello David” this would most likely have been the case given the time period during which this particular poem was first seen at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC in 1982.

But all-in-all her poetry is of mediocre quality which leads me to wonder if she would have received the minor acclaim over the past 20+ years had she not continued and expanded the false claim that she was a 2-tour Vietnam nurse.

The issue – the betrayal – is that in making this false claim Ms. Shuster became privy to the private personal conversations of true Vietnam nurses and other Veterans who were attempting to deal with the traumas of their Vietnam experiences – an entitlement to which she otherwise would have been totally exempt. In turn Ms. Shuster undoubtedly used the content of these conversations as the basis for her writing. Seems one could relate this to a psychiatrist writing verse based on the privileged communications with a patient.

Perhaps I am “old school” but to me this does far exceed ANY parameters of poetic license.

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