Gentle on My Mind

Hartford, John

 	                                    1967 
 
     G                                G7 
It's knowing that your door is always open 
         G               Am 
and your path is free to walk, 
                      Am7 
that makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag 
              D7                  G 
rolled up and stashed behind your couch. 
         G 
And it's knowing I'm not shackled 
       G7 
by forgotten words and bonds 
        G                                     Am 
and the ink stains that have dried if on some line, 
                       Am7 
that keeps you in the backroads 
 
by the rivers of my mem'ry 
      Am             D7          G 
that keeps you ever gentle on my mind. 
 
It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy 
planted on the 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'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 till I'm blind 
But not to where I cannot see 
You walkin' on the backroads 
By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind 
 
I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron 
In some train yard 
My beard a rustlin' coal pile 
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face 
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can 
I pretend to hold you to my chest and find 
That you're waitin' from the backroads 
By the rivers of my memory 
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind 

dne 15. 09. 2020