Gentle on My Mind

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

It's knowin' I'm not shackled

By forgotten words or bonds

Some ink stains line have dried upon some lines

That keeps you on a backroad

By the rivers of my memory

Keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy

Planted on their columns now that binds me

Or somethin' that somebody said

'Cause they thought we fit together walking

It's knowin' that your world will not be

Cursin' or forgiving, when I walk along

Some railroad track and find

That you're wavin' from the backroads

By the rivers of my memory

Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind

Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines

And the junk yards and the

Highways come between us

Some other woman cryin' to her mother

'Cause she turned and I was gone

I still run in silence, tears of joy might stain my face

And the summer sun might burn me

'Till I'm blind

Ah, 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 the gurglin', cracklin'

Cauldron in some train yard

My beard a roughenin' coal pile

And a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Though cupped hands and a round tin can

I pretend to hold you to my breast and find

That you're wavin' from the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind

That you're wavin' from the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind

That you're wavin' from the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

For hours, you're just gentle on my mind