when she took the US National Library of Poetry's Editors' Choice Award for the second year in a row.

Ms Shirley Rogers, who has been writing since 1987, won the award for a 19-line poem entitled "Aids''.

"Aids'', about the scourge of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, will be published in an upcoming anthology.

In 1994, Ms Rogers, who also writes books for children, took the Library-affiliated International Society of Poetry's International Poet of Merit Award for another poem.

She is to travel to the United States in August to collect this year's honour at a champagne banquet in Washington DC.

"I do not consider myself a professional writer; I would like to become a better writer,'' Ms Rogers told Community recently. "But I do like to write for others, especially for children.'' Among the books that Ms Rogers has written for children are "Twas The Night Before Christmas,'' about a family's aborted Christmas trip, and "Curious'', about a train ride through Africa.

Currently Ms Rogers is working on a film script.

"There has been some interest expressed in the script,'' Ms Rogers said last week. "I have already spoken to a producer in Minneapolis.'' Her award-winning poem is reprinted at right.

*** Some 20,000 people streamed through the grounds, exhibit halls and displays of the 58th annual Agricultural Exhibition in April, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries reported recently.

In the latest of the Department's monthly bulletins, Department director Mr.

John A. Barnes noted that good weather and "the record number of exhibitors'' combined to result in one of the biggest Exhibition turnouts in recent memory.

"There were early indications that the 1995 Agricultural Exhibition would be a memorable one,'' Mr. Barnes wrote. "It couldn't have been any better.'' The three-day Exhibition, which was tied in with the 25th anniversary of Earth Day this year, was held from April 20 to 22.

Aids by Shirley Rogers Aids patient Look at me, I'm human and can feel, Touch, hold, laugh, cry, Reach my point of desperation, In search of the Father Look of concern in my face, Fear what has it done to me, I thought I was honest in my doing, My life I lived a secret, My own thoughts in my heart, Loss, alone in my thought, Grace, amazing unto me, Kneel my child we will pray, God has not forgotten me, He loved me in every way, It affects any race, creed, colour, Humble I thought myself to be, Quiet in my destiny.

POET Ms Shirley Rogers