Let's know it, that your door is always open And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowing I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that are 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 clinging to the rocks and ivy planted on their columns now that bind me
Or something that somebody said because they thought we fit together walking
It's just knowing that the world will not be cursed nor forgiven
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my memory
Ever hours you're just gentle on my mind
Though the wheat fields and the clotheslines and the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman's crying to her mother cause she turned and I was gone
Ooh, I still might run in silence, tears of joy might stain my face
And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
Oh, but not to where I cannot see you walking on the back roads by the rivers flowing gentle on my mind
I dip my cup of soup back from a gurgling, crackling cauldron in some train yard
Might be at a wrestling, a cold towel, a dirty half-pulled loaf across my face
Through cup tans round the tin can I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waiting from the back roads by the rivers of my memories
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind
Gentle on my mind
You are gentle on my mind
You are gentle on my mind