River of blue cut through the valley

Swept past the willows and the sandy bar

Ran so swift, locked in my mem'ry

But the way things were is not the way things are

We used to swim in the crook of its arm

In the summer heat who could be blamed

Avoided the rapids as best as we could

Never thought that that stream could be tamed



Long ago I gave up that riverside valley

Traded coulees for towers of steel

Abandoned the vistas and valleys of childhood

For the things that they told me were real

No more would I run with the speed of a colt

Cross the gravel down by water side

To race with the twig I threw in at the bend

Couldn't beat it though god knows I tried



Now the river's not running as fast as it did

There's a dam there restricting the flow

And I don't run either as fast as I could

Guess that river and I have grown old



Now it's strange in returning to places of youth

It seems your memory has made a mistake

Cause the place that once scared you with white water running

Has been turned by decree to a lake

Makes me think about how too I smoothed out the wrinkles

Made the waters as calm as you please

Makes me think about how that river and I

Were both happier when we ran free



Now the river's not running as fast as it did

There's a dam there restricting the flow

And I don't run either as fast as I could

Guess that river and I have grown old

Guess that river and I have grown old