Folk & Traditional Song Lyrics www.traditionalmusic.co.uk Gentle on My Mind 
Gentle on My Mind 
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 walkin' 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 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 run in silence, tears of joy might stain my face And 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' Cauldron in some train yard My beard a rough'ning 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 memory Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind 
recorded by Judy Collins JY