100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
The roundabout eats profits made on swings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
Platonic Greece was not so talentless
A piercint wit would sprightliest horses flog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
Where no one bothered how one warmed one's bum
Fried grilled black pudding's still the world's best yum


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.