Reader Photo: 100-Year-Olds Celebrate Poem Written in 1913

Two local 100-year-olds celebrated their landmark birthdays Monday alongside a Joyce Kilmer enthusiast who has been promoting awareness of the 100th anniversary of the poet’s most famous work all year.

According to a release from Alex Michelini, the President and Founder of The Joyce Kilmer Society of Mahwah, the Esplanade senior citizen housing complex in Rockland County hosted a party for two of its residents – Pauline Silver, who was originally from the Bronx, and Hamlet Campagna, originally from River Edge.

Michelini attended the party to give a talk on “Trees,” Kilmer’s famous poem that he wrote 100 years ago while living in Mahwah. The poem was first published in a poetry magazine in August of 1913.

Earlier this year, Michelini conducted a research project that he said proved that “Trees” was written in the township, which has been contested in the past.