I think some kind of hint is in order.
OK - ‘both ways’ is simply a reference to there being two answers, one for each of the two previous answers.
So to be really clear: there are 2 possible answers I was going for (in the manner of NYT US Election specials), one beginning with Y and one beginning with L, both 5 letters long.
YACHT and LEAVE.
++++++
Off LEAVE (and including a T 
):
Steve and I search on the border of Greece for anything left behind. (7)
Close enough, I was going for yacht and liner.
VESTIGE (anagram of Steve, I, and the G from Greece)
+++++
What did I see in Irene, my nemesis? Sounds like musical notes (5)
What did I see in Irene, my nemesis? Sounds like musical notes (5)
ENEMY (Irene my nemesis. Also NME)
++++
Bird playing a hymn. (5)
MYNAH (anagram of a hymn)
+++++
Rhyming author - but not a poet (8)
Heinlein
+++++
Electronic device contains edibles, not pants in it (7,3)
Hint: The puzzle part is “not pants in it”
Hint2: It’s an anagram in a container using the words in the previous post
INSTANT POT? The extra “it” in your first hint threw me off a little, but mainly I wasn’t familiar with the brand (and I didn’t think of a kitchen appliance, but “contains edibles” should have clued me in on that). I feel like you deserved for this to be solved sooner!
+++++
Exit trench the hard way, in short (1, 1, 1)
TNT 
. 
A hard way to exit a trench for sure.
Or maybe TMI, a hard way to exit the trench of pleasant ignorance.
Or how about TSA, definitely a hard way for something to exit one’s personal trench after being caught trying to smuggle it through airport security.
Or maybe TPP, the Mariana Trench is in the Pacific.
But I’m going with TLI, too little information. As in 2+ days of crickets is a hint that a hint is needed, lest the thread is DOA, which does not fit the overlap.
Sorry! Let me expand on my original a little:
Exit trench the hard way, in short - very exaggerated (1, 1, 1)
Hint: what method of exiting a trench led to very few survivors?
ETA: my apologies if this phrase and/or abbreviation is uncommon in the US, I didn’t think it was particularly a Britishism but I could be wrong.
So it is DOA?!
I’ll put you all out of your misery: the answer is OTT, short for ‘over the top’. In WWI, launching a (usually fruitless and bloody) attack from a trench was known as going over the top, and the phrase is also used to describe extravagant behaviour.
Playing off OTT:
Water level falls steeply in these (5)
OK, I know this is very bad form, but cancel my last clue - I thought of a better one (for a different word) and it may be a long while before I get to use it otherwise:
Cycle back and forth (4)
TOOT?
(btw, I’ve heard of “over the top,” but not in abbreviated form)
Wasn’t “Over the Top” a really bad Sylvester Stallone movie about an arm-wrestling truck driver?
Not quite what I had in mind - I don’t think it solves the ‘cycle’ part.
News to me, but I assume it lived up to its title!