100,000,000,000,000 poems

Prose took the minstrel's verse without a squeeze
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
The Turks said just take anything you please
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
The roundabout eats profits made on swings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
With quill white-collared through his life will jog
On wheels the tourist follows hos hostess
Bard I adore your endless monologue
Suits lisping Spanish tongues for whom say some
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.