The Spider Taketh Hold with Her Hands, and is in Kings' Palaces—Kilby Austin

Special Announcement: The Rabbit Room Poetry Workshop is now taking applications! If you’re searching for creative community and passionate about writing poems that glimmer with truth and beauty, then this workshop is for you. Find all the details below.

By Kilby Austin

You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. Psalm 40:5

Fog is not fog particularly viewed:
each bead of moisture, like the sweat of God,
would show itself as such to any shrewd
observer, where it broods above our sod.
From its allotted place in middle air
a spider taketh hold a single drop
to string with jeweller's precision where
a hundred others sparkle on her rope.
And you have multiplied the works you've wrought
for us, O God: you are the exponent
of each discrete and opalescent thought
that crowds and glory-clouds our firmament
beyond our telling.
                                     Let me catch a few
amid this fog, as spiderwebs catch dew.

Kilby Austin grew up in the United States singing hymns with her family, and she began to write her own hymns and poems in childhood. Over the years her work has appeared in various journals, including The Penwood Review, Anima: Poems of Soul & Spirit, and The Author’s Journal of Inventive Literature. Now she lives in the north of England with her husband and children, where they attend Durham Presbyterian Church. She works part time as a proofreader and freelance editor and writes regularly at https://kilbyaustin.substack.com.

We’re excited to present the Rabbit Room Poetry Workshop! Over the course of four weeks, we’re facilitating an interactive workshop experience designed to help you hone your technical skills and gain confidence in your work through hands-on feedback from your peers. During each ninety-minute Zoom session, you’ll learn tools for taking a poem all the way from the initial spark of inspiration to a final polished draft. Best of all, you’ll work alongside other poets to practice skills in real time and exchange collaborative feedback in a supportive environment.

Applications are accepted through July 27; find out all the details and apply here!

Find Out More

This poem is from Kilby Austin’s new book, This Way to Warmth (Prisca Publishing, 2026). You can find Kilby’s book here.

This Way to Warmth

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash