Hundred Thousand Billion Poems

"A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems" (Cent mille milliards de poèmes) is a unique and innovative work of literature created by the French writer and poet Raymond Queneau. It was first published in 1961. The book consists of ten sonnets, each containing 14 lines. However, what makes this collection extraordinary is that the lines are not fixed within each sonnet. Instead, the pages of the book are divided into strips, and each strip contains one line from a sonnet. The reader can mix and match the strips to create new combinations of lines, generating a vast number of possible poems—precisely one hundred thousand billion potential poems, hence the title.

Sounds confusing? Well, come along and we’ll talk about it and how one might go about creating such a work. It’s an excellent exercise to explore unexpected tones, ideas and structures in writing.