It's knowing that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tends to leave my sleeping bag rolled up
And stashed behind your couch

It's knowing I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bars
And the ink stains that have dried upon some lines
That keeps you on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
And keeps you ever gentle
On my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Planted on the columns
Now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walkin'

It's just knowing that the world
Will not be cursed or forgiven
When I walk along some railway track and find
That you're waiting on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
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 crying
To her mother 'cause she turned
And I was gone

Well 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 flowing gentle
On my mind

Well dip my cup of soup back
From a gurgling bubbling cauldron
In some train yard
My beard rough and the coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low
'Cross my face

Through cupped hand, drivin' tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waiving on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin' ever gentle
On my mind

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