Gentle On My Mind

(album: Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell - 1968)

It's knowing 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 the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you on the backroads
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 binds me
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 walk along some railroad track and find
That you're moving on the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
And for 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 crying 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 walking on the backroads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

The shutters creek and autumn winds
That makes me draw inside myself in silence
Crosslegged now, I sit and watch
The endless chase of leaves across my yard
And laying down my hairbrush
I lean back within my window seat and find
That your moving on the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
Every smiling, ever gentle on my mind

Through cupped hands around a tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waving from the backroads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind