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Leighton Russell

Mathew Wilson, Writing 2

June 7, 2017

Nature Based Therapy

The relaxing and therapeutic properties of nature, though recognized by much of society

have been ironically disregarded by those that need it most. While academic studies do show that

patients with stress related disorders that are put in a nature-based therapy programs recover

quickly, it is unfortunately true that many psychological patients are ignorant of this fact and

probably unlikely to ever stumble upon this research. I chose to translate such an academic

article into the genre of poetry, where it would not only be more likely to reach a new and more

appropriate audience of stressed urbanites incorrectly believing they are okay, but also to

maintain and display the initial authors argument in a more emotional sense with the ultimate

goal of motivating people suffering from stress and anxiety disorders to get into a natural setting

where they can experience full emotional healing.

In the article How Do Participants in Nature-Based Therapy Experience and Evaluate

Their Rehabilitation? a group of Swedish researches show from the patients perspective what it

is like to go through such a therapy session from start to finish, and by studying the evidence

used in this experiment, the choice of genre for my translated piece becomes clearer. Mike Bunn

in his article How to Read Like a Writer states that when questioning an author, the kinds of

questions you ask should ask should be determined by the genre of writing you are reading

(Bunn). Because evidence is foundation to all writing in the genre of academics, I decided to

question the evidence that this article used. Interestingly, I found that the use of direct quotes

from patients who had gone through this nature based therapy revealed the importance of
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emotions and emotional health in this text as seen by this quote from a patient: Sitting out here

in the sunshineis like a shower on the inside, like giving the brain a showerIts

purifyingOne gets the feeling of an almost spiritual peacefulness (Salin). Thus, I chose to

translate this emotional evidence into my poem with the line stress cannot remain in the

presence of a brook to reveal how emotions change in the presence of nature as described in the

research. Having acknowledged the importance of the emotional aspect of the evidence I knew

that emotionally conveying the same evidence in a poem would maintain its correlation to the

initial text continuing to emphasize what the initial authors deemed most important.

Another motive for me to translate this academic article into the genre of poetry was

condensing it down as explained in Zinssers article Simplicity and its theme that meaningless

fluff gets in the way of the true argument of any form of writing. This thought can be seen in his

opening line which adequately sums up the entire article Clutter is the disease of American

writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills

and meaningless jargon (Zinsser). While translating a half dozen pages of material into a

handful of lines is by no means comprehensive it did force me as a reader to identify the most

important aspects of the initial text, in the context of my new genre of poetry, as seen in lines

thirteen and fourteen of my poem, Passion rekindled, Identity reborn, Soul rejuvenated and

Peace regained (13-14). I chose to shorten this stanza from its initial form of complete sentences

to make it more succinct and therefore increase its emphasis and weight by taking the

superfluous words away, [leaving] what is organic and strong (Zinsser). In agreement with

Zinsser, I believe it is especially true to edit for simplicity in poetry and not lose the elusive

reader who has an attention span of about twenty seconds (Zinsser).

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One aspect of the text that I deliberately chose to change was the audience, away from

just professionals in the field of psychology and counseling and to people who are ignorant of

their need for time in nature. The audience of this piece is revealed as professionals by the

recommendation for further research at the end of the article (Salin). My new audience was

described throughout my first stanza as those that deny beauty and reject peace (3-4). Because I

had the challenge of targeting an audience that may not see their problem, I found it essential to

structure my poem by initially addressing a problem common with my audience and then

offering a solution as seen in the last lines of poem, Soul rejuvenated and Peace regained all in

the presence of Mother Nature (14-15). In this way, the evidence and claim of the initial article

portrayed in a poetic context can more efficiently reach and change peoples lives.

Finally, my translation did have the ultimate goal of maintaining the argument of the

original work, that the deeper and spiritual reflections that come from being in nature are what

most helped the participants to recover. This can be seen in the quote nature was an important

source for the existential reflections to arise and develop (Salin). I believe that my poem

maintains this central argument throughout, as seen in the third stanza, stress cannot remain in

the presence of a brook neither can a frown behold a rose (11-12). My poem argues that as you

listen to the song of the daisy, a time of metacognition arises that allows your passion to be

rekindled, your identity reborn, your soul rejuvenated and your peace regained (13-14). In

adequately translating this text from one genre to another it was absolutely essential to maintain

the initial argument throughout my entire translation.

In conclusion, I found that translating this particular article into a poem allowed me to

highlight the emotional aspect of its evidence, maintain its central argument, and manipulate the

intended audience in order to better serve the purpose of both the initial and translated piece:
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To get people who are suffering from stress and anxiety disorders into a natural setting where

they can experience full emotional healing. While it does not encapsulate everything from the

initial text, my poetic translation optimally accentuates the most important aspects of the article

in a poetic context.
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Works Cited

Bunn, Mike. How to Read Like a Writer. 2011. In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing,

Volume 2. Parlor Press. Copyright 2011. Print.

Salin, Eva, Josefa Vega Matuszczyk, Gunnar Ahlborg, Jr., and Patrik Grahn. "How Do

Participants in Nature-Based Therapy Experience and Evaluate Their Rehabilitation."

Journal of Theraputic Horticulture 22.1 (2012): 9-22. Print.

Zinnser, William. Simplicity. 1980. Simplicity. In On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to

Writing Nonfiction. New York: Harper & Row. Copyright 1980. Web.