100,000,000,000,000 poems

Prose took the minstrel's verse without a squeeze
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
The understanding critic firstly sees
And empty cages show life's bird has flown
Old Galileo's Pisan offerings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
In salads all chew grubs before they've wings
Till firemen come with hose-piped tidal wave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
What things we did we went the whole darned hog
On wheels the tourist follows hos hostess
Southern baroque's seductive dialogue
On fish-slab whale nor seal has never swum
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.