Love Itself Was Gone, by Leonard Cohen

The light came through the window Straight from the sun above And so inside my little room There plunged the rays of love

In streams of light I clearly saw The dust you seldom see Out of which the nameless makes A name for one like me

I'll try to say a little more Love went on and on Until it reached an open door – Then love itself Love itself was gone

All busy in the sunlight The flecks did float and dance And I was tumbled up with them In formless circumstance

I'll try to say a little more Love went on and on Until it reached an open door – Then love itself Love itself was gone

Then I came back from where I'd been My room, it looked the same – But there was nothing left between The nameless and the name (Nameless and the name)

All busy in the sunlight The flecks did float and dance And I was tumbled up with them In formless circumstance

I'll try to say a little more Love went on and on Until it reached an open door – Then love itself Love itself was gone Love itself Love itself was gone

Leonard Cohen was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Sourced from here.

Seed Questions for Reflection

What do you make of the notion that love, like sunlight, can illuminate the unseen aspects of our lives and then, as if through an open door, vanishes leaving us in a state of formless circumstance? Can you share a personal story that reflects a moment in your life when you felt immersed in love or light, only for it to transform or fade away, altering your perception of what was once familiar? What helps you remain present and open to the transformative power of love, especially when it seems to have vanished, leaving you in the mystery of the nameless and the named?

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Add Your Reflection

14 Past Reflections

Esther

Jul 2, 2025

Love like the sun is always there. It’s what we notice that has our focus. Names and forms are what we give to what we can see. The nameless and formless is everywhere and is the mystery of how we live life.

Erika

Jun 21, 2025

Thank you for the beautiful reading and reflections. What I takeaway: Love is profoundly intangible such as light and yet we can deeply feel its presence and its absence.

Amy

Jun 19, 2025

As long as I have God Loving in my life, Loves Light shines. God never exits out my door. I do not want Him to leave. I am the door keeper … I do not close Him out. He is essential to my very life!
When the world’s love rejects me, I go to Love! Heaven’s Love overcomes the world’s love every time! He is amazing!
I am in Love with Him!❤️

Jagdish P Dave

Jun 17, 2025

I loved reading this beautiful poem by Leonard Cohen. Here is my reflection on this inspiring poem. Light of love shines from the open window of my life. My egobound self creates walls of separation and divisiveness. Light of love opens my closed eyes and helps me see oneness in manyness. Pure love is universal. It has no Self-blocking boundareis. Pure love helps us transcend worldly boundaries and makes us citizens of the universe. Love wakes us from the delusion of separateness caused by the walls of caste, color, race and religion. Pure unconditional love creates cosmic consciousness and helps us realize that we are children of God regrdless of outward differences. This poem reminds me of the words of Gautam Buddha. When he became awakened. he expressed his awakening in the following words: Gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi swaha. Gone, gone beyond and gone beyond the beyond, what an awakening! All of us have the potential to transcend the worldly identity and become the c... View full comment

Michelle

Jun 17, 2025

I do feel like love has the qualities of sunlight, the warmth, the brightness the beauty of it all, but I can also see it as a deception that we perceive love to be when we’re in the warmth and the light of it, but love is always there regardless of whether we see it or feel it I think it’s a mistake to see the sunlight as love And the particles are only dancing when we see them I believe they’re dancing all the time and I believe the love is always there, and it would help us to try to remember that, regardless of how things look and feel to our mind and heart there’s something deeper and beyond that and there is also something deeper and beyond us, which is the all abiding love that surrounds us constantly

David Doane Jun 20, 2025

I like your statements that love is always there whether we see it or feel it or not. Our challenge is to see it and live in it and from it.

Doris Fraser

Jun 17, 2025

Everything is Trust, all the rest is dust. By Gordon Lightfoot

Arwa Umesh

Jun 17, 2025

But then just like the sun that lingered there
Touching everything anew
The love that touched my life stayed
And the faith in me renewed

Judith Thierry

Jun 16, 2025

Well it has to do with grief. My mother was dying. It was before cellphones. We went to the nurse’s station and they told us she had died. We were expecting to visit her. We found ourselves just standing in the vacant elevator lobby holding each other not wanting to push the button.

robert caldwell

Jun 16, 2025

I was visiting with along-term friend the other day, and she said " Love is what is left when you lose everything you love". It took me a while, but I came to see what she was saying. The formless circumstance IS the Love, when much of the time, what we "love" is actually a form of clinging to what will eventually go away. "Truth" is not just what is good, beautiful and peaceful. Suffering is not error,
but Love lives on.

Pankaj Shah

Jun 16, 2025

Beautiful poem! Dust is what we are, until a ray of light (consciousness) from the source comes in, animates us, and as that ray passes, dust is what remains as a formless circumstance!

I was with some enlightened ones yesterday. We had gathered to remember and reminisce about the embodiment of love that we used to call by the name of Kozo. We briefly spoke about gracefully exiting this form-ful circumstance that is our life, and how blessed we were to have witnessed such exits from the many Kozo's that surround us. This poem reminds me of how wonderful it is to experience Life! And for me to live it in a way that makes for an exit as graceful and loving as possible . . .

BarbaraS. Jun 17, 2025

That is beautiful, thank you for sharing!

David Doane

Jun 14, 2025

I see love as oneness of all that is, and to be in love is to be in awareness of oneness, and that awareness illuminates the unseen aspects of our lives. Love doesn't end, but awareness of it ends, and when that awareness ends, our seeing lessens and we're stumbling around once again as in a very dimly lit room. I have moments of feeling immersed in love and light, seeing clearly and feeling together, which moments fade away rather quickly and I'm left seeing what was familiar at least a little differently, which for me is positive change. What helps me remain present and open to the transformative power of love is staying present, open, and honest to myself, which leaves me in the mystery. When I start grasping, become goal-directed, or try to control, I separate, awareness of love leaves, and the light dims.

Jagdish P Dave

Jun 12, 2025

Love is like sunlight. It removes the self-created darkness and enlightens us. True love is unconditional. There is no 'if and then' in love. Freedom is the breath of love. As human beings we may have certain spects of our lives that we may not be aware of. That is our hidden self. We may be ashamed of certain aspects of our life and consciously or unconsciously we may hide them from ourselves and from others. Love removes those veils so that we can truly see ourseves without any blinders. Love removes those blinders and that helps us to be true to ourselves. Like truth, love liberates us from the self-created bondage. Life is a journey with ups and downs. Love has helped me and guided me to go through ups and downs of my life. Being truthful to myself and having loving and caring hands in my life have helped me go through the long journey of my life. And I am very grateful to them.
Namaste!
Jagdish P dave