100,000,000,000,000 poems

Prose took the minstrel's verse without a squeeze
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
It's one of many horrid happenings
With sombre thoughts they grimly line the nave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
Thou homestead hillside woodland rock and cave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
On wheels the tourist follows hos hostess
Lobsters for sale must be our apologue
On fish-slab whale nor seal has never swum
They're kings we're mammal-cousins hi ho hum


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.