100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
The showman gargles fire and sword with ease
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
With sombre thoughts they grimly line the nave
The learning linguist cameramaniac sings
That every verbal shock aims to deprave
The genealogist with field and fess
Shallots and sharks'fins face the smould'ring log
Poor Yorick comes to bury not address
One misses cricket hearth and croaking frog
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
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.