Wit

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WIT


Wit is not the same as humour, though they overlap a bit;

Humour can be formulaic, which cannot be said of wit.

Sitcom writers view their public; after that they sit and write.

Then they aim their brand of humour at the 'seats' to get it right.

Humorous writers, of the print type, labour hard and labour long

Making just the right impression, for they dare not get it wrong.

Stand-up comics have their writers, matched to their stand-up persona;

Jokes may seem to be impromptu, but the joker's not the owner.

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Wit is quite a different creature; wit is quick and off the cuff;

It's a ricochet performance, made of incandescent stuff.

Someone speaks, and, in a second, comes the sizzling reply;

Words bounce back,  a bit like lightning, crackling in a stormy sky.

All of us have thought 'If only I'd said this or I'd said that';

That's too late, a witty riposte, has to be swift and off pat.
Churchill, though a stolid bulldog, was considered quite a wit.
Here are two of his responses, you'll think both of them a hit.
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• Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if I were your wife, I’d poison your tea.
  Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I’d drink it.
  
  
• Bessie Braddock: Sir, you are drunk.
  Churchill: And you, madam, are ugly. But in the morning, I shall be sober.
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EPIPHANY

Only one Epiphany in a long life.

I exited a certain door

And I never looked back.

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It happened sixty-six years ago

And it changed my life.

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It began with boredom.

Every Sunday was boring,

But one saw it as a sort of punishment

For ones sins.

Doubt?

What was doubt?

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The pillar of the ancient church

Was next to my pew.

I stroked the thousand year block

Out of boredom.

I know its roughness reminded me

Of a cat's tongue.

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And, suddenly, out of nowhere,

For I had never heard of disbelief,

Came the thought.

'It's just an ordinary stone.'

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For most of my fourteen years

Everything pertaining to the Church

Had been Holy.

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The idea had been instilled in me

By my Preacher father.

And I had believed.

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Now, suddenly,

In a flash,

I didn't!

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Instantaneously

I was an Agnostic!

Not that I knew the word.

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And now that I am old

I still feel exactly the same way.

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The word 'Epiphany'

Has a religious ring to it.

But not in my case.

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