100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Forms shadowy with indecision wheeze
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
Old Galileo's Pisan offerings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
Till firemen come with hose-piped tidal wave
When dried the terrapin can naught express
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
Whiskey will always wake an Irish bog
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
The bell tolls fee-less fi-less fo-less fum


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.