100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
Forms shadowy with indecision wheeze
And empty cages show life's bird has flown
The frisian Isles my friends are cherised things
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
One tongue will do to keep the verse agog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Bard I adore your endless monologue
Ventriloquists be blowed you strike me dumb
In cognac brandy is Bacardi rum?


Raymond Queneau

Translation to English by Stanley Chapman
found in "Oulipo Compendium"
Atlas 1998, ISBN 0-947757-96-1

Idea and implementation by Magnus Bodin 1997
Produced in the wonderful country of Sweden.