It's knowin' that your
door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to
leave my sleepin' bag
Rolled up and stashed
behind your couch
And it's knowin'
I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that
have dried upon some line
That keeps you
in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever
gentle on my mind
It's not clingin' to the rocks
and ivy planted on their
columns now that bind me
Or somethin' that somebody
said because they thought
we fit together walkin'
It's just knowin' that the world
will not be cursin' or forgivin'
When I walk along some
railroad track and find
That you're movin'
on the back roads
by the rivers of my memory
And for hours you're just
gentle on my mind
Though the wheat fields
and the clothes lines
and the junkyards and the
highways come between us
And some other woman's
cryin' to her mother
'Cause she turned
and I was gone
I still might run in silence
Tears of joy
might stain my face
And the summer sun might
burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see
You walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowin'
gentle on my mind
I dip my cup of soup back
from a gurglin' cracklin'
cauldron in some train yard
My beard a rustlin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled
low across my face
Through cupped hands
'round a tin can
I pretend to hold you
to my breast and find
That you're waitin'
from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin' ever
gentle on my mind
That you're waitin'
from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin' ever
gentle on my mind
Gentle on my mind
Gentle on my mind
Gentle on my mind