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Show Vern C. Mortensen Parowan, Utah born: 18 June, 1906 Over the years, Vern Mortensen has worked at everything from cowboying, sheepshearing and rodeoing to being a miner, timber cutter and a farmer. Raised in southern Utah's Parowan Valley, his experiences are similar to many Utahns in that his family was involved both in agriculture and in raising sheep, cows and sometimes pigs. Work on Vern's "livestock farm" was somewhat seasonal, so he supplemented his activity with a variety of extra work. Sheep-shearing, at which he was extremely adept, often took him on a circuit that began in Nevada in April and ended in Montana in June. After spending the summer attending to his own farm, fall work in the cow camps was not unusual for him. Evenings spent away from home in cow or sheep camps often provided the opportunity for Vern to both enjoy and participate in the recitation of western verse. Vern has been reciting poetry since he was a young man and over the years has committed to memory a wide variety of poems. He attributes his initial interest in poetry to his mother's love of verse and he remembers, as a child, learning poems from books his family had in their collection. From reading and reciting poetry, Vern moved to writing his own verse. His poems are based on his life experiences and a number of them reflect his involvement with both cattle and sheep culture. Although he continues to recite the work of other poets and is a welcome performer at church socials and family reunions, Cowboy Poetry From Utah 107 |