A good poem is a controlled explosion of sounds, images and ideas. A good poem can make you think and feel things you’ve never thought or felt before, or remind you of a truth you had forgotten you knew. And a good poem can take less than three minutes to read. What more can you ask? Seriously! What more do you, cherished NFTU reader, want? And yet… Too many people think that poetry is not for them. They find poetry overly serious and intimidating. They have been taught that poems are to be painstakingly decoded for their ultimate, incontrovertible meaning, and that they would need a literature degree to have any hope of getting there. Somewhere along the line, they have forgotten that reading poetry is always a mysterious pleasure, and never, ever a chore. Poetry response is simple. We post a poem that we like, by a contemporary poet whose work we hope you will learn to love. Our contributors then present a response to that poem – be that in the form of another poem, piece of prose, illustration or photograph – for your delectation. Not every poem you read on these pages will blow you away, but chances are, one or two will. The humble objective of this section is to help you, dear NFTU reader, to find the poets to suit your tastes, to find the poems that will take you somewhere you’ve never been and, in so doing, make your life just that little bit better.