100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
His exaltation shocked both youth and crone
The Turks said just take anything you please
'Ere meanings new to ancient tribes are thrown
The frisian Isles my friends are cherised things
With sombre thoughts they grimly line the nave
The fertile mother changelings drops like kings
Thou homestead hillside woodland rock and cave
Emboggled minds may puff and blow and guess
With quill white-collared through his life will jog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
Whiskey will always wake an Irish bog
Where no one bothered how one warmed one's bum
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.