Invisible Cities

I, like a river ,
Have been turned aside by this harsh age.
I am a substitute. My life has flowed into another channel
And I do not recognize my shores.
O, how many fine sights I have missed,
How many curtains have risen without me
And fallen too. How many of my friends
I have not met even once in my life,
How many city skylines
Could have drawn tears from my eyes.
I who know only the one city
And by touch, in my sleep, could find it...
---A.A. Akhmatova


'Zenobia, a city of suspended stairways, a city in the air that stands on high pilings, houses with many platforms and balconies...Zobeide, the white city, founded on an identical dream or Armilla, strange because it is unfinished or because it has been demolished, the cause of which is some enchantment or only a whim...

Chloe, a great city, the people move through the streets are all strangers. At each encounter they imagine a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them; conversations , surprises, caresses, bites. But no-one greets anyone; eyes lock for a second, then dart away, seeking other eyes, never stopping....

Or the Valdrada, built on a lake so that down in the water the rooms' interiors with ceilings and floors, the perspective of the halls, the mirrors of the wardrobes are contained in the water. ..

..the ashes of other cities that must be forgotten before the ideal city takes form.'
---Italo Calvino.

You won't find a new country, won't find
another shore.
This city will always pursue you. You will walk
the same streets, grow old in the same neighbourhoods,
will turn grey in these same houses.
You'll end up in this city. Don't hope
for things elsewhere:
there is no ship for you, there is no road.
As you've wasted your life here, in this
small corner,
you've destroyed it everywhere else in the world.
---Cavafy, 'The City'