Poetry form: Choka

The Choka is another short Japanese form of poetry. In the instructions that I found, it did not say anything about a restriction in length.

It did say, however, that there is a choice which can be used as to the syllable count. The first was:

five seven seven, five seven seven, etc.

The second syllable count choice was:

five seven five, five seven five, etc

While the instructions did not go into rhyme scheme, the rhyme scheme of the example that was given was as follows:

a a b c d d

Below I have written an example, using the first syllable count of five seven seven, five seven seven, and the above rhyme scheme.

Yes, for God so loved

He sent His Son from above

To die for all of our sin.

We deserved it not,

But He endured all the pain

So that Heaven we could gain.

This poem below was written with the five seven five, five seven five syllable count, still with the a a b c d d rhyme scheme.

Jesus died for sin

That all mankind is caught in;

Though they still deny

Their great need for Him

He will knock at their heart’s door

‘Til time is no more.

And, that is the Choka. Of course, as I’ve always been saying, more than one choka (as, I believe, with any short poetry form) can make stanzas in a longer poem. That can even be done with alternating the two rhyme schemes that have been given if a poet is feeling adventurous.

So, I hope that you’ll want to give the Choka a try. 🙂