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Raffles 1887

A writer's residency: poetry in motion

In the years since Maugham and Kipling were regular guests, Raffles Hotel Singapore has hosted a number of writers as part of its inspiring Writers’ Residency programme. Here the poet MADELEINE LEE, the first Singaporean writer in the role, describes how the days rolled out during her residency from 2022-2023.

I WAS surprised and honoured to be invited to be a writer-in-residence at Raffles Hotel Singapore. I was just so pleased to be representing not only Singaporean writing, but also poetry as a genre. I was the envy of many of my fellow writers.

RHS kindly offered me a certain number of nights in the hotel. In situ. That was amazing for me, as I am the sort of poet who writes from place. Having my home in Singapore also meant I could spread my nights out, with stays ranging from a long weekend to a week, sometimes at the weekend, sometimes on weekdays. This scattering of nine visits allowed me to observe and write in different moments but in the same physical location. The result was a collection of 30 poems called how to build a lux hotel, published in 2023.

On a typical day at the grande dame I would wake at about 8am and do 30 minutes of meditation. After that, my body would scream ‘caffeine’ so I would head down to the Grand Lobby Bar for a double-shot cappuccino. Perhaps a bit of morning conversation with Lea, Sage or Brent, depending on who was on duty; Grace, the Rooms Director, would often float by in her beautiful cape jacket.

There is a breakfast buffet laid out in the Tiffin Room but I'm not really a big breakfast person, so I used this time to review my notes, all written in a Moleskine notebook, to see if any verse came to mind.

"Much has been written on the history and the building. I wanted to add to that the characters and the psyche"

At about 10.30 I would adjourn to the verandah at the Palm Court, which is cool in the morning as it is on the west wing. There, usually with a pot of Darjeeling, I continued my writing or sometimes read for a while. Much has been written on the history and the building. I wanted to add to that the characters and the psyche. I observed not just the people in the hotel, but also the birds, the gardens and the ghosts of writers past – they all made my collection come to life.

I was privy to many seasonal happenings – Christmas light-up, Chinese New Year, Easter – which gave different colour and perspectives. It allowed a much fuller story arc. I was able to organise the 30 poems in how to build a lux hotel into six themes: old, new, cast, taste, form and trance.

Two of my favourite moments were chatting with the gardener in the Palm Court and finding out all about how often he had to use the robot mower on the lawn. That inspired this poem, fakhrul.

indeed
the grass may be greener
in the inner courtyard lawn
in the wet monsoon season

so fakhrul the gardener says
as he brings out the robomow
every two or three days

the slightly smaller square
takes two to three hours
the larger
the entire morning

he is in a house long-sleeved grey polo
with the logo of the stylised
traveller’s palm

in another universe
he might be the gentleman golfer
i the grasscutter

yet on this breezy morning
we chat like old friends
on the menace of cowgrass
invading his beautiful carpet lawn

Another funny moment was when I was in my usual spot in the Palm Court after breakfast, and this Chinese family wandered along. In singaporean birds I simply recorded the twittering conversation in Mandarin between the two young sons.

Surprisingly, I did not write in the Writers Bar very much, though five of the poems in how to build a lux hotel have now been encapsulated in a series of cocktails by head bartender Nicholas. My favourite of these is Balcon – not least because it has a generous helping of champagne in it!

I wrote balcon [below] after seeing how the crowds at the hotel for the premiere afternoon performance of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra overflowed upstairs to the balconies overlooking The Lawn.

the crowds milling
the strings tuning
filling
filling
over-filling
the lawn
eventually
spilling
upwards
onto the balcon
standing room
only

With so much going on the whole time, writing in a hotel environment is certainly distracting – a key challenge for me was to turn distraction into an inspiration.

How to build a lux hotel is available from Raffles Arcade, $35

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Raffles 1887

A writer's residency: poetry in motion

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