diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c6726f3beb..ea06b36d50 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ this is hotfix for a bug introduced in v1.2.0. in rare conditions node may loop
 
 > 2023-10-02T15:28:14.002+0200 WARN fd68b.sync mesh failed to process layer from sync {"node_id": "fd68b9397572556c2f329f3e5af2faf23aef85dbbbb7e38447fae2f4ef38899f", "module": "sync", "sessionId": "29422935-68d6-47d1-87a8-02293aa181f3", "layer_id": 23104, "errmsg": "requested layer 8063 is before evicted 13102", "name": "sync"}
 
+* [#5138](https://github.com/spacemeshos/go-spacemesh/pull/5138) Bump poet to v0.9.7
+
+  The submit proof of work should now be up to 40% faster thanks to [code optimization](https://github.com/spacemeshos/poet/pull/419).
+
 ## v1.2.0
 
 ### Upgrade information
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 8dfdb181ea..f183b82a89 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/spacemeshos/fixed v0.1.1
 	github.com/spacemeshos/go-scale v1.1.12
 	github.com/spacemeshos/merkle-tree v0.2.3
-	github.com/spacemeshos/poet v0.9.6
+	github.com/spacemeshos/poet v0.9.7
 	github.com/spacemeshos/post v0.9.5
 	github.com/spf13/afero v1.10.0
 	github.com/spf13/cobra v1.7.0
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ require (
 	golang.org/x/mod v0.12.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/net v0.15.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/oauth2 v0.12.0 // indirect
-	golang.org/x/sys v0.12.0 // indirect
+	golang.org/x/sys v0.13.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/term v0.12.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/text v0.13.0 // indirect
 	golang.org/x/time v0.3.0 // indirect
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index d1e152592b..ace7efdde2 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -651,8 +651,8 @@ github.com/spacemeshos/go-scale v1.1.12 h1:O66yfIBaXSCqbxJYlDP6QSI2s9Lz8rvZjPe3q
 github.com/spacemeshos/go-scale v1.1.12/go.mod h1:loK9wrj9IHxATTrVqIyR2o9SB+E9/SAsiDDXuUfvbA8=
 github.com/spacemeshos/merkle-tree v0.2.3 h1:zGEgOR9nxAzJr0EWjD39QFngwFEOxfxMloEJZtAysas=
 github.com/spacemeshos/merkle-tree v0.2.3/go.mod h1:VomOcQ5pCBXz7goiWMP5hReyqOfDXGSKbrH2GB9Htww=
-github.com/spacemeshos/poet v0.9.6 h1:KU+Ruur2iBtd9fihA1SpFFJ8fv9kf0vtFt9PuWDbxSI=
-github.com/spacemeshos/poet v0.9.6/go.mod h1:VCypYv4+dCpA6WRngcWAk6mBDmQJaXsocmH0Gejjfjs=
+github.com/spacemeshos/poet v0.9.7 h1:FmKhgUKj//8Tzn8czWSIrn6+FVUFZbvLh8zqLfB8dfE=
+github.com/spacemeshos/poet v0.9.7/go.mod h1:wGCdhs2jnfQ52Amcmygv9uEEwYpdHAPjbiPg0Uf6cNQ=
 github.com/spacemeshos/post v0.9.5 h1:seIRBKt22Y2C6k/grRPl9KgR7XmTMwp+kIuBY/c7VQM=
 github.com/spacemeshos/post v0.9.5/go.mod h1:jGwvAiJAnThEx1eNCvHszgoIpiXiWHxjEv4YIcjBhLQ=
 github.com/spacemeshos/sha256-simd v0.1.0 h1:G7Mfu5RYdQiuE+wu4ZyJ7I0TI74uqLhFnKblEnSpjYI=
@@ -937,8 +937,8 @@ golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20211025201205-69cdffdb9359/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBc
 golang.org/x/sys v0.0.0-20220908164124-27713097b956/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.5.0/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
 golang.org/x/sys v0.6.0/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
-golang.org/x/sys v0.12.0 h1:CM0HF96J0hcLAwsHPJZjfdNzs0gftsLfgKt57wWHJ0o=
-golang.org/x/sys v0.12.0/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
+golang.org/x/sys v0.13.0 h1:Af8nKPmuFypiUBjVoU9V20FiaFXOcuZI21p0ycVYYGE=
+golang.org/x/sys v0.13.0/go.mod h1:oPkhp1MJrh7nUepCBck5+mAzfO9JrbApNNgaTdGDITg=
 golang.org/x/term v0.0.0-20201126162022-7de9c90e9dd1/go.mod h1:bj7SfCRtBDWHUb9snDiAeCFNEtKQo2Wmx5Cou7ajbmo=
 golang.org/x/term v0.12.0 h1:/ZfYdc3zq+q02Rv9vGqTeSItdzZTSNDmfTi0mBAuidU=
 golang.org/x/term v0.12.0/go.mod h1:owVbMEjm3cBLCHdkQu9b1opXd4ETQWc3BhuQGKgXgvU=
diff --git a/systest/Makefile b/systest/Makefile
index 141aaa4e59..517b7baa5a 100644
--- a/systest/Makefile
+++ b/systest/Makefile
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ tmpfile := $(shell mktemp /tmp/systest-XXX)
 test_name ?= TestSmeshing
 org ?= spacemeshos
 image_name ?= $(org)/systest:$(version_info)
-poet_image ?= spacemeshos/poet:v0.9.6
+poet_image ?= spacemeshos/poet:v0.9.7
 smesher_image ?= $(org)/go-spacemesh-dev:$(version_info)
 bs_image ?= $(org)/go-spacemesh-dev-bs:$(version_info)
 test_id ?= systest-$(version_info)