A
waka form of
Japanese poetry, much older but not as well known as the
haiku. A popular style of court poetry from the
Kofun era onwards (c. 6th century). Literally means "long poem" in Japanese.
Choka can be of almost any length, as the structure is of a simple 5-7 pattern, with an extra line of 7 syllables at the end. It was (and still is) quite common for choka to be of 100 lines and over. Due to their potential length, they were often had strong links to classical epics.
The following is a choka from the Manyoshu (Book 5)
shirogane mo
kuganemo tama mo
nani sen ni
masareru takara
koni shikame yamo
neither silver
nor gold, precious stones
any value at all
compared
treasure of children
Sources
www.kyoshi.or.jp/inv-haiku/birth.htm