Psaltery & Lyre

They are beautiful poems!! Thank you for the shout out Chiara <3

Congrats to the nominees! Love seeing @janezwart.bsky.social and @jackbedell.bsky.social on this list (psst their poems are beautiful read them!) 🌻

First 1.5 stanzas of Jane Zwart's poem "i apologize for the inconvenience" in Psaltery & Lyre and miss begging to be pardoned; the poetry in it fit what I meant, I wanted someone to grant me the indulgence of being, of needing favors and water, I wanted someone to intuit that I spoke with cupped hands. The thing is people would prefer you excuse

Just finishing my coffee and reading this beautiful @janezwart.bsky.social poem that got nominated for Best of the Net. Love that it's "about" our commonplace phrases, but these neat lil' jigsawing stanzas cover a deep emotional core. So good!
@sundresspub.bsky.social @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social

We're so grateful you sent it our way!

I'd been knocking on @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social 's door for a long time, and I was so honored that they chose to publish "Sea Glass, Yellow Basket" -- my 2nd BotN nom is just the icing on the cake. Thanks to Millie and her team! You can read it here:

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/06/16/s...

Delivered by Matthew Murrey

“Halfway there, curtains / of sudden rain came down.”

"Delivered" by Matthew Murrey @mytwords.bsky.social

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/10/06/d...

Best of the Net Nominees. Poetry: “A Tool Imposes Itself Upon Us To Use It” by Jacob Scheper “I apologize for the inconvenience” by Jane Zwart “Curve” by Rachel Trousdale “Milkweed” by Rose DeMaris “Votive” by Lisa Bickmore “Ruskin and the Puddle of Water” by Jack B. Bedell Nonfiction: “Time Keeping” by Susan Marie Swanson “Sea Glass, Yellow Basket” by Abigail Myers

We are so excited to share our BEST OF THE NET @sundresspub.bsky.social Nominees!

Favorite Passages by Daye Phillippo

"Barred Rock hens sing, same measures, over / and over as they pass over the earth"

"Favorite Passages" by Daye Phillippo

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/09/29/f...

Another Daughter Poem by Lisa Dordal

She’s a girl, // not born but imagined. Imagination, I say-- / Another word for God."

"Another Daughter Poem" by Lisa Dordal.

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/09/22/a...

Just in case tomorrow really is the day the other shoe finally drops, here is one of my Rapture-trauma poems. "Angel Triptych" appeared in @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social almost exactly two years ago.

fossil fuel by Sunny Dizon and again, i’m digging / for the hand around my neck / for those mud blind eyes / for that tasteless thing to chew / and swallow /  / for the swallow outside the window whi…

"and again, i’m digging / for the hand //
around my neck"

"fossil fuel" by Sunny Dizon

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/09/15/f...

Goodness, I just read this poem and it gutted, no flowered me.

"Like us, thin-skinned and tender, they are
quick to bruise, quick to droop and fail. My dad,

my dad is failing quickly, drooping, bruised."

A mini masterclass in line breaks and repetition!

Church Windows by Brandi Handley

"I get on my knees every Sunday not to repent but to get close to other beings, to feel connected to them, knees and hands in the dirt, the world bending all around me. "

"Church Windows" by Brandi Handley @brandihandley24.bsky.social

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/09/08/c...

Thank you, dear Dana!

This poem really got to me…irises and all. @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social publishes something wonderful every Monday.

Tikvah by Anne Myles

"Here in my fragile house— / a little rain, a little wind, / a little unearned blessing—"

"Tivkah" by Anne Myles

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/09/01/t...

An Untended Field by Lisa Rhoades

"The cathedrals of the iris don’t last– / in this they are like us, thin-skinned and tender."

"An Untended Field" by Lisa Rhoades

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/08/25/a...

Book Review: “The Hours” by Matthew J. Andrews Review by Stephen A. Allen

“Andrews’s faith here is not the sort that cuddles you and tucks you into bed, but rather the sort that keeps you awake at night, working out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

Stephen A Allen reviews "The Hours" by Matthew J Andrews

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/08/22/b...

Seferis wrote by Catherine Rockwood

"‘whatever human hands take up with love is holy.’

I want to believe that. And in part I do."

"Seferis wrote" by @martin65.bsky.social

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/08/18/s...

Temple of Hephaestus by Bex Hainsworth

Day 4: “Temple of Hephaestus” by @poetbex.bsky.social in @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social. This poem is so immersive and such a joy to read aloud. psalteryandlyre.org/2025/07/21/t...

💖

Independent lit journals, now is the time to—oh, what was that? you have been shining? This whole time? Carry on 📚💙

@psalteryandlyre.bsky.social, @tinderboxpoetry.bsky.social, @kenyonreview.bsky.social, Poetry Northwest, @moistpoetryjournal.bsky.social, @periodicities.bsky.social, & more!

Bonded by Annette Sisson

"Today she watches cloud cover ease off, / scuffs bits of blossom with the edge of her shoe."

"Bonded" by Annette Sisson

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/08/11/b...

"Edelman treats weighty subjects and complex emotions with masterful nuance...[the ] speaker is humble and honest about her role in a world of damage, injustice and inequality.' Rebekah Wolman reviews Rachel Edelman's Dear Memphis in Psaltery & Lyre

Read Rebekah Wolman’s review of @rachelsedelman.bsky.social’s Dear Memphis in @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social here: psalteryandlyre.org/2025/07/25/b...

Find your copy here: riverriverbooks.org/store/Dear-M...

Temple of Hephaestus We approach the Agoraios Kolonos hill flanked by statues of Poseidon. Time has rendered them limbless, yet each scale of their tails remains, a golden island archipelago, with grooves of ribs like gills. The Hephesteum crouches amongst laurel and myrtle and pomegranate, seeming almost bashful about its bulk. A short climb and we are beneath a frieze of centaurs and Lapiths: it is supposed to be a battle, but their bodies are leaning together, legs intertwined, like a dance, like worship. This is a shrine for the god of making things, and we feel a reverence for creation as we follow its edges, fingers sliding along the sandy rope. It is the most intact temple of its kind. A forest of ridged columns forms rectangles of blue sky, between stone beams sunlight spills like hammered gold into space and silence. Everything is a doorway.

ICYMI: My poem 'Temple of Hephaestus' was published last month by the super @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social 🏛️

Fossils in the Garden by Sophia Alapati

"Nothing could have prepared Galilee for the amount of bones in this room."

"Fossils in the Garden" by Sophia Alapati @wisdomofthesea.bsky.social

psalteryandlyre.org/2025/08/04/f...

My poem "Please Hang Up & Try Again" in the the latest issue of @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social

This winding almost but never deadend of a poem, this infinite loop.

So excited to read this new review of @rachelsedelman.bsky.social’s Dear Memphis—a must read for those interested in a poetics of the environment, history, and a Jewish family living in the South…📚💙