My reading of original poem, River of Death, is actually a rather enlightened view of the thing we call “death” and came to me in a very lucid and memorable dream.

I include a flac file and samples done with nature sounds (water) and a music track entitled Surrender by Jami Sieber at Magnatune, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Lyrics:

I dived headlong into the River of Death
And found that death made no sense;
That death does not exist
Outside the human perspective

I dived into the River of Death
And found death to be illusion;
No longer could I see myself
As limited in any way,
Or unable to be who I am,
For inside death there was nothing

The light I discovered at the End of Death
Is light of everlasting beauty
No way to express its glory and mystery
And its eternal reverence for all that lives
Inside death is the answer to all questions

Inside death is the realization
That I’m one with all creation
Inside death is the knowledge that
I merge with all at the moment of “death”

I come here to experience life fully,
Then move on to a place of higher knowing
Which never changes;
Inside death is the full knowledge of life

Death is but illusion made up by mankind
In the fear that no matter what one does here
It can never be enough;
That eventually one will perish
To some unknown and unknowable place

All this is illusion,
For in the seeds of death
Is the germination of new life
Which transcends anything here;
Death is but a memory of something
Which never existed

Life too is illusion
When seen as fleeting or unknowable;
I know about life by living it fully,
By being in life to the best of my ability

If I fear life it’s because I’m afraid
To live it in all its forms at once;
Fear brings me face-to-face with realization
That life can never change;
I know life here won’t end ‘til I’m ready
To experience life someplace else

There can be no separation between anything
Of any consequence here or anyplace;
My life is part of a grand scheme
Written by One who sees far beyond
Any human perspective

I dived into the River of Death;
No matter how hard I swam against the current
There was no escaping the realization
That my life was never to end;
That there could never be anywhere to go

I dived into the River of Death
And found it to be bottomless;
I emerged from the River of Death
Alive in all ways that could ever matter