Other Forms of Waka
The term waka originally encompassed a number of differing forms, principally tanka (短歌, "short poem"?) and chōka (長歌, "long poem"?), but also including bussokusekika, sedōka (旋頭歌, "memorized poem"?) and katauta (片歌, "poem fragment"?). These last three forms, however, fell into disuse at the beginning of the Heian period, and chōka vanished soon afterwards. Thus, the term waka came in time to refer only to tanka.
Read more about this topic: Tanka
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“This is a catastrophic universe, always; and subject to sudden reversals, upheavals, changes, cataclysms, with joy never anything but the song of substance under pressure forced into new forms and shapes.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)