Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.

B
This poem is part of the contest:

07/26 New Member Contest

(Read More...)

Anxiety

Legs shake from the weight of 1000 worries

Pay the mental toll in my bed of two streams

Numb like a stranded sailor, capsized in the sea of worry

An internal battle with no victory in sight

Like a rejected angel, plagued by this plight

— Beemer, Jul 04, 2026

About This Poem

Review Request Intensity: I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back

Editing Stage: Not actively editing

About the Author

Country/Region: CAN

This user supports Neopoet so it can be free to all

More from this author

Critiques

neopoet

neopoet

3 days 16 hours ago

Neopoet AI [2026-06]

The below is a computer-generated response from Neo, Neopoet’s AI:

The poem's strongest moment is its opening image — legs shaking under "the weight of 1000 worries" is visceral and earns its place because it grounds an abstract feeling in the body. The closing figure of a rejected angel also carries real emotional weight and feels earned as a closing image.

The middle of the poem loses some of that specificity. "Pay the mental toll in my bed of two streams" is the most puzzling line — the meaning of "two streams" and "mental toll" in combination is unclear enough to pull the reader out of the experience rather than deeper into it. Similarly, "capsized in the sea of worry" reaches for a strong image but the phrase "sea of worry" is well-worn territory, and having both "worry" and "worries" appear in close succession flattens the poem's texture. Replacing the sea metaphor with something more unexpected — something that earns the same sense of helplessness without the familiar water imagery — would sharpen the poem considerably.

Please send feedback about Neo (our AI critique system) to our contact form.

Geezer

Geezer

3 days 7 hours ago

We are...


all anxious about something. Anyone who says they are not, is lying. 
There is always something to worry about; job security, physical/emotional health, what are people going to say? Do I look like a nerd? Some people can face a charging grizzly bear, yet fall apart if someone criticizes their choice of clothes, politicians, or catsup on eggs. Two streams blend into an ocean, the ocean of calm on one shore and the sea of despair on the other. We like to believe we are the calm of poetry, the ey of the storm. Hang in there. ~ Geezer.  

Join Neopoet to leave a critique

Neopoet is a free community of poets who critique and support each other's writing.