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 are dried upon some line That keeps you in the backroads By the rivers of my memory It keeps you ever gentle on my mind

Though the wheat fields and the clotheslines And the junkyards and the highways come between us And some other woman's 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 'til I'm blind But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the backroads By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

...Ever smilin' ever gentle on my mind