File:THE STROMNESS LIBRARY (9273035835).jpg

English: The Stromness Library looks a rather tired place these days though I believe it will soon have a new lease of life in the still-to-be completed civic-center under construction down by the harbour. George Mackay Brown (GMB) lived round the corner in Mayburn Court so every time he walked along the street he would pass the library..Did he pop in for a chat with the girls, to do some research, or pick-up a who-dunnit? I haven't been able to trace any reference to his using it but there is a library reference in one of his poem quoted below. I looked in on the library twice, on the first visit it was empty save for a solitary member of staff, on my second a lone gentleman was making use of the PC facility. There is however a nice bust of George and a rather good painting of him wearing quite a cheery face. Worth going in to see them and I hope they survive the flit.

THE DEATH OF PETER ESSON
Taylor, Town Librarian, Free Kirk Elder

Peter at some immortal cloth, it seemed,
Fashioned and stitched, for so long had he sat
Heraldic on his bench. We never dreamed
It was his shroud that he was busy at.

Well Peter knew, his thousand books would pass
Gray into dust, that still a tinker's tale
As hard as granite and as sweet as grass,
Told over reeking pipes, outlasts them all.

The Free Kirk cleaves gray houses - Peter's ark
Freighted for heaven, galeblown with psalm and prayer.
The predestined needle quivered on the mark.
The wheel spun true. The seventieth rock was near.

Peter. I mourned. Early on Monday last
There came a wave and stood above your mast.

George Mackay Brown 1921 - 1996.