CodyRay Caho
Isolation
CodyRay Caho (baritone) and Michael Lewis (piano and composer) perform "Isolation" on poetry of Dicky Dutton (1990)
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Text:
It suffocates this parish house,
accommodating every wish that’s placed before us.
Her walls, once taut despair, have dropped
despite appealing efforts plucked from deep within us.
I’ll take a walk, lay down the walls
to rest engorged molasses oozing here between us.
Dicky Dutton (b. 1990)
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CodyRay Caho and Michael Lewis met in Binghamton, NY, in 2014 and have lived and collaborated together since. After a four year stint in Phoenix, AZ, the two returned to New York in 2019 -- this time to the Hudson Valley, where they set to make art for the indefinite future. In addition to working as a freelance musician and coach, Michael launched the music nonprofit organization, Aural Compass Projects, while CodyRay pursued a second master’s degree at Bard College Conservatory. Like so many others, the pandemic put a halt to any in-person community engagement. This was the birthing place of “Isolation.” Under the pseudonym Dicky Dutton -- a family name of the matriarch -- CodyRay (Dicky) wrote this poem as the couple’s tiny parish house apartment grew smaller and smaller, encroaching on the creative space once supported by a pandemic-free world. The first line writes, “It suffocates this parish house/ accommodating every wish that’s placed before us.” “After a few weeks of intense withdrawal, I wanted this poem to act as an exhale, a step forward, a moment of seeing someone, a loving glance, and/or an acknowledgment of personal space,” CodyRay states. Michael adds, “The poetry was written at the beginning of April, if I remember correctly, at a time when it had felt like we had been isolated for a long time. Looking back on it now seems like a lifetime ago. Cody (Dicky) had written a few other poems as a part of her Isolation cycle, but I have only set the first poem so far -- I hope to set the others to music someday soon.”
