Forbes-ing his own path

The Giant Panda at the zoo
just sits and chomps on fresh bamboo.
His belly is like a cooking pot,
Which happens when you eat a lot.
He's content to do not much but chew.
Which is all he seems to do
(That and poo!)

Robert Forbes, of the eponymous magazine, has finally followed up on his debut poetry book (Beastly Feasts) with another collection (Let's Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes). New Yorker cartoonist Ronald Searle contributed illustrations to both volumes.

The book confirms a suspicion we've long harbored over at the Poetry Foundation: If you've got money, and charm, and a famous cartoonist, you can dispense with meter altogether.

A chicken-stewing cat named Shauna
slipped on her sweat in the sauna.
She moaned on the floor,
"I must reach the door,
Or I'll be a fricasseed goner."

For more on Forbes -- including an expose of his childhood fashion trauma -- click here.