Gentle On My Mind - John Hartford

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 lines

That keeps you in the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

And 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

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 moving on the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

Although the wheat fields and the curled twines

And the junkyards

And the highways come between us

And some other woman 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 the gurglin'

Cracklin' cauldron in some train yard

My beard a roughenin' 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 wavin' from the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

Ever smilin' ever gentle on my mind