The collection "Words I Couldn't Stop" is the first of two collections of Joyce Shintani's poetry. It contains her early and middle poems: lyrical, pastoral, sensorial; reflections on otherness, religion, love and nature. Partly autobiographical, the poems are characterized by delicacy and vulnerability but can also deliver a punch. Formally, they range from short haiku-like verses to longer poems; rhythms vary from strict meter to free verse. The poems hold a tense balance between structural lightness and tough messages.