It's knowing you don't try to buy my freedom with some promise made of gold That for you my door stays open and our love becomes a simple two-way street And it's knowing we're not shackled by forgotten words and bonds And the ink stains that have dried upon some line That keeps you on the back roads 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 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 drifting through the marketplace And find that you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my memory And for hours you're just gentle on my mind Though the wheat fields and the clothesline and the junkyards 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 shutters creak in autumn winds that make me throw inside myself in silence Cross-legged 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 you're moving on the back roads by the rivers of my memory Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind