100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
Upon his old oak chest he cuts his cheese
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Rejecting ermine to become a knave
They both are right not unformed smatterings
Thou homestead hillside woodland rock and cave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
One misses cricket hearth and croaking frog
And let you off from your opinions glum
Soliloquies predict great things old chum


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.