100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Forms shadowy with indecision wheeze
Which neither time nor tide can long postpone
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
In salads all chew grubs before they've wings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
One tongue will do to keep the verse agog
And played their mountain croquet jungle chess
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
Ventriloquists be blowed you strike me dumb
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.