100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
Forms shadowy with indecision wheeze
Which neither time nor tide can long postpone
It's one of many horrid happenings
Filching the lolly country thrift helped save
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
As sleeping-bags the silent landscape pave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
While homeward thirsts to each quenched glass say yes
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
And let you off from your opinions glum
And lessors' dates have all too short a sum


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.