100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
Normal one aims to be and share the throne
Old Galileo's Pisan offerings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
In indian summers Englishmen drink grog
Poor Yorick comes to bury not address
Bard I adore your endless monologue
On fish-slab whale nor seal has never swum
Fried grilled black pudding's still the world's best yum


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.