It's knowing you don't try to bind my freedom
With some promise made of gold
That for you my door stays open
And our love becomes a simple to a-street

And it's knowing we're not shacked by forgotten words and bons
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks
And I'd be planted on some column now that binds us
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walking

It's just knowing that the world will not be cursing or forgiving
When I'm driftin' through the market place and find
That you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junk yards and the highways come between us
And some other woman crying to her mother
'Cause she turned and you were gone

I still might walk for hours tears of joy might stain my face
And a summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you moving on the back roads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

The shadows freak in the autumn winds
That make me draw inside myself in silence
Cross legged night I sit and watch
The endless chase of leaves across my yard

And layin' down my hair brush
I lean back within my window seat and find
That you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind

Copyright: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Writer(s): John Hartford