ILA Magazine offered to poets, a week-long prompt challenge, and the theme of this particular prompt, asking poets to write a poem with the line:
"Peeping Through a Broken Window", used and expressed as well as applying it into the beginning and ending lines. We chose 14 poets out of thirty-nine as "Best Entries". "Hanging"

Peeping through a broken window
My ears deaf and my mouth numb
Along the police sirens and honking horns of ambulances
I remember the sentence in a strange language
on an oily paper strip guard passed to my mate.
Till now, I couldn't decipher that
I was lost between hope and despair.
I heard most shops didn't open today
People were rushing towards graveyard with shovels
They have drunk all varieties of wine in a gulp,
I was bemused, spreader the praying rug
And the paper was passed to me with a knot sketched.
I was the man who knows the death calendar
I voiced my goodbyes and still saw the man
Peeping through a broken window.

© Bur Han Kupwara, India "Peeping Through a Broken Window" Peeping through a broken window
A prism of my past memories pierce
Pricking in me a guilt;
So remorseful I feel all the time
When I peep through this broken window.

Never in my time being
Have I the peaceful mien to resolve
On these tumultuous upheavals
Of the haunting past
When I peep through this broken window.

And life has not come to appease
In this vicissitudes of pranks
And mockery as bedeviled
Anytime I find myself back
Peeping through this window.

© Kichime Philibus Elisha Jos, Nigeria "Peeping Through a Broken Window" Peeping through a broken window
I see a world laden with beauty and color
Birds and butterflies flutter in sky vast
Freedom in air, freedom in thoughts. Struggling inside four concrete walls
Tears satiated, silence falls
Broken glass pricks to elevate my pain
Warring inside longs to be heard by someone. O' rainbow, bridge my hope
Bounty around, joy abound
Bless my mortal days in colors seven
Rose and lavender of twilight deepen.

Unable to hold my shattered dreams
Stuck betwixt rotating day and night
I watch the world like petulant child
Peeping through a broken window.

© Anjana Prasad Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India "Abandoned Soul" Peeping through a broken window
I let out my long guarded sighs
And waited for comforting loe
There was silence everywhere.

But then, I heard a sob from behind
I ran to the place of sorrow
Embraced the wounds and let them heal
Yet there was none to wipe my tears.

You are the most blessed; what do you want?
Are you selfish? Do you try to grab others' joy?
They pushed me away while stealing all my joy
And I am still peeping through a broken window.

© Shalini Samuel Kanyakumari, India "Peeping" peeping through a broken window she saw a sky bruised
from gun butts
torn into two
shrill voices of soldiers
incessant barking of dogs
'juden' being repeated on
loudspeakers
a staccato of red
broke stilled silences
Anne Frank struggled
mind and heart
against a shredded
dawn peeping through a broken window of my reasoning I saw najib still alive
raised to an electric pole
at Kabul a brittle sun eventually broke
his eyes trapped footprints of the last sunlight Anne Frank and Dr. Najibullah
stayed with us
in changing horizons
wind swept promises in
the dark
peeping through a broken window. - Anne Frank -
died at the age of 15 in Auschwitz concentration camp, March of 1945 - Dr. Mohammad Najibullah -
- Former President of Afghanistan, castrated and tortured to death by Taliban on 26 September 1996 © Amitabh Mitra East London, Eastern Cape
South Africa "She is Envious" Peeping through a broken window
A ten year old girl in clear view
To outside yard scenery show
Great occurrence on a nice day
She hopes to be there the whole day.

So she can be in that garden
With pretty flowers shining with the sun
She imagines, it will be fun
With bees, birds, butterflies flying by
With birds, sweet tweets like lullaby.

Be there too, with children playing
And laughing, teasing, enjoying.
The affair so captivating
It's wonderful upon her thought
But with her status she cannot.

As to the scene, she's envious
To divine God she's curious
And to God with her questions, thus
God do you still love me? She said
Why can't I play with them? She pleads.

Her sentiments to God given
Heartfelt grief from her emotions
With her heart like a window broken
Thoughts by a girl with cancer in woe
Peeping through a broken window. © Ency Bearis Las Vegas, USA "Hear My Plight" Peeping through a broken window,
The world turns into an ugly view.
Everything seen, no longer true -
Distorted trees, disoriented hues.

Seasons flowed same as my tears,
Dropping like broken pearls.
All I want is to be freed
Just like a sprouting seed.

Like a seed, submerged in the deep,
Beads of light, Come! Break its sleep!
A little warm, a little rain,
Surely, it will wash the pain.

Like a sprouting seed welcomed by light,
Outside world, Oh! Hear my plight!
Shattered sights are fake in this view,
Peeping through a broken window.

© Jeffrey Cejero Philippines "Peeping Through a Broken Window" Peeping through a broken window
Heart-beat hurry with the sun rays
With chilled fears in the silence
Palpitate with rhythm of blue sky
Far off the wall of rigid tolerance
Space was jam-packed with emptiness
Where my gloomiest spirit mingles
Impromptu around the wilderness
Alluring to twirl with twinkles
Abandoned aspiration making a loud call
Though exquisite designed window
Yearning autumn in cadenced fall
With the plot of rightly meadow
Reverberation of stillness is not silent
When the serenity magnificently invites
Even the emotional raging heart shows talent
And hospitality with open sites
Quiver my wonderland to fall
Into bits in an inky shadow
Arouse by the vigorous ball
Peeping through a broken window.

© Kanisha Shah Sugar Land, USA "Broken Pane" Peeping through a broken window,
Is like looking at my past,
There are shadows stretched with familiar shapes,
That I strain to recognize through the filtered glass...
A kaleidoscope of changing colors...
From a life I lived before,
All these emotions are now on show -
And all I feel is this shattered pane,
Peeping through a broken window.

© John Anthony Fingleton (Löst Viking) Lumbaré, Paraguay Peeping through a broken window
Enchanted by a world in golden hues
The innocence perched on velvety grass
The shining pearls of ephemeral dew
The waving trees and buzzing bees
Climbing heart shaped ivy leaves
And blooming buds ushering hope
Momentary oblivion of impinging sorrow
Blessed me to see what lies tomorrow
Discarding the sharpening shred of glass
I wiped my tears and looked forward
While peeping through a broken window.

© Shraddha S. Sahu Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
India "Peeping Through a Broken Window"

Peeping through a broken window
An image of yesterday lies beneath the rugged quilt.
Old photographs are scattered in every corner.
The memories of the past are relived in a glimpse.

A hypnotizing moment, I can't turn back around.
Mesmerized by these cold, creeping feelings
Time travels back to the place I was before.
To a recognizable and a familiar place.

The tiny cup was still filled with my favorite coffee
But the aroma seems left many years ago
The never-ending smirk and giggles
Seems to flow in this smoky air.

One familiar face to one another
In a halted time, frozen by yesterday
A good time to requite the long lost friend
It's good to see you, dear old fella!

Crazy moments and intense feelings
This brings back the heartache and frustration.
Gazing in astonishment and wonder
As he is peeping through a broken window.

© Dolo Rez
Makati, Philippines
"Broken Window" Peeping through a broken window
Deep sighs, mid of the ocean
The heart-rending cry of water

A scattered soul in the dark night
Awe of the vast sky with longing eyes
A wave took me in another direction

As a habit
He made promises
We used to trust!

Swim your heart out
A storm appeared from the opposite winds
Raindrops spontaneously fell on the cheeks

I saw myself
Once, there was a smiling soul
Peeping through a broken window.

© Farhan Anjum Pakistan "An Indomitable Spirit" Peeping through a broken window
Takes an indomitable spirit amidst dark clouds of uncertainties, yet glows

Where rays of hope can pass through even in the deep hole of one's brokenness
Trying to fix those shattered dreams and fill the emptiness

Hold on tight to the Almighty One who can mend what is broken
Finding the true place of solace with a contrite heart ne'er forsaken

Oh, it takes a strong will and courageous step of faith that reaches to the sky, echo!
Peeping through a broken window.

Lyn B. Pastrana "Inside My Mind's Broken Windows"

Peeping through a broken window
Panes of my closed mind are broken,
Blurring my vision, and spreading the confusion all around.

The radiant beams of knowledge and
Awareness are still entering my mind,
But in distorted fashion, it's difficult
To decide which way to go.

Somehow, it dawned on me that
My egotistical approach is the root cause,
Of breaking the mind's windows, making me
Stuck at such a sorry pass.

Anything inimical human health and
Safety, finds an opening through the broken
Windows, the life teaches us this simple lesson
But we often fail to respond
In time, and devote our lives to see
The things in the surrounding space,
By peeping through a broken window. © Rakesh Chandra India