Stressed

I usually don't talk about being stressed over book manuscripts, contest manuscripts, submissions and the like, because then I would have to update and confess to losing this that or the other or gettng rejected from this that or the other. But I have to talk about how stressed I am about this year's NEA application. I know how to do it (don't need the directions anymore) but all of a sudden I feel freaked out by the thought of this invisible, unknown audience charged with picking poems out of a tower of paper. I mean, what do I send to make myself stand out? Didn't someone write a while back about how this os what makes poets all start to sound alike because they begin to fear taking risks in their work? I wonder.