Remembering Icon of Mahwah, Poet Joyce Kilmer

With the coming of Autumn and the cooling temperatures, it is just a matter of days before the leaves on the trees begin turning bright shades of yellow, orange and red and with it a reminder of how something so ordinary as the tree in the front yard could inspire poetry.

It’s also a reminder that it’s been almost 100 years since poet Joyce Kilmer called Mahwah home. His house was on the corner of Airmount Road and Armour Avenue. According to local experts, Kilmer was sitting in this house when he looked out and saw a tree that inspired his famous poem – “Trees.”

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

The poem was featured in “Superman II” and his work has been featured in books and movies.

Was this man, who died in service during World War I, really writing only about Mahwah? Kilmer’s granddaughter, Miriam does not believe so.

“My father's (Kenton Kilmer, the eldest son of Joyce Kilmer) conjecture is that Joyce Kilmer was not thinking about a particular tree, but trees in general,” said Miriam, an artist and photographer from Annandale, Virginia.

Kenton Kilmer said his father wrote the poem in an upstairs bedroom “which served as Mother's and Dad's bedroom and also as Dad's office.... The window looked out down a hill, on our well-wooded lawn: trees of many kinds, from mature trees to thin saplings: oaks, maples, black and white birches, and I don't know what else.”

The photographer said she and her family work to honor Joyce Kilmer's legacy, and keep it alive. “My grandfather was about keeping the environment safe and pristine and we keep his work going forward,” said Miriam Kilmer.

Miriam Kilmer started a site called Rising Dove which shares her love of nature, artwork and how her grandfather’s work inspires her.

Their grandfather had been born in New Brunswick, on Dec. 6, 1886 the youngest of four children. His father, Frederick had been a chemist for Johnson  & Johnson and had inventor of baby powder for the company. Kilmer was named Joyce in honor of Rev. Elisha Joyce, who had been the rector of the local Episcopal Church in town.

He grew up in New Brunswick and upon entering college he attended Rutgers University and transferred to Columbia University in New York City where he became vice president of the Philolexian Society.  In 1908, he married Aline Murray, who was also a poet and would one day become known as a children’s author. The two would have five children and ultimately settle in Mahwah in 1912.

Kilmer contributed poems to publications like “The Bang,” “The Pathfinder,” “The Sun,” “The Smart Set” and “Moods.” He would also contribute book reviews to “The Literary Digest,” “Town & Country” and “The New York Times.” He was famously known for helping publishers Funk and Wagnalls publish “The Standard Dictionary.”

Photos of Kilmer are up at the and on regular anniversaries, his name is honored again and again.

The Winders, who currently occupy Kilmer’s house, regularly entertain questions about Joyce Kilmer and the house he occupied. But they say they are glad to keep his legacy going as well.

Mayor John DaPuzzo said he was glad Kilmer found inspiration in town and he said Kilmer was just one of many amazing people that called Mahwah home. “Mahwah has had some amazing people in our town,” he said.

To find out more about Joyce Kilmer and his family, visit Miriam Kilmer’s site here.