Campbell Glen Gentle On My Mind Lyrics

Gentle On My Mind Lyrics

Words & Music by John Hartford 

 

 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 ink stains that have dried upon some line

 That keeps you in the backroads

 By the rivers of my mem'ry

 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 are moving on the backroads

 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 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 'til I'm blind

 But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the backroads

 By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

 

 I dip my cup of soup back from the gurglin'

 Cracklin' caldron in some train yard

 My beard a roughning coal pile and

 A dirty hat pulled low across my face

 Through cupped hands 'round a tin can

 I pretend I hold you to my breast and find

 That you're waving from the backroads

 By the rivers of my mem'ry

 Ever smilin' ever gentle on my mind