Cyra Sweet Dumitru

An extensively published poet who has experienced healing through poetry writing and journaling since her teenaged years, Cyra’s career spans:

  • Poet-in-the-Schools for the San Antonio Independent School District & for the Northeast Independent School District.

  • Medical Writer & Managing Editor, Eastern Virginia Medical Authority, Norfolk, VA

  • Writer-in-the-Community & Faculty through Gemini Ink Literary Arts Center, San Antonio, TX

  • Writer-in-Residence, Children’s Bereavement Center of San Antonio

  • Medical Writer & Managing Editor, Southwest Texas Methodist Hospital, San Antonio, TX

  • Independent Writer, Methodist Healthcare Ministries, San Antonio, TX

  • Independent Writer, H.E. Butt Foundation, Kerrville, TX

  • Faculty, Department of English Literature & Language, St. Mary’s University, 20 years, San Antonio, TX

  • “Poetry as a Pathway for Peace” Performance featuring Irish poet Padraig O’Tuama and Cyra Dumitru, Assumption Chapel, St. Mary’s University, November 2013

  • Certified Practitioner of Poetic Medicine in 2015, The Institute for Poetic Medicine (IPM), Palto Alto, CA (One of three PPM in Texas as of 2021)

  • Founder of “In the Shelter of Poetry Circle” and then “Sunflower Circle,” therapeutic writing circles offered in conjunction with the student counseling center at St. Mary’s University, Poetry Partner with IPM for this work

  • Co-faculty & Writing Mentor, Institute for Poetic Medicine, Certification in Poetic Medicine Practice, Palo Alto, CA

  • “Moving Metaphors: From Traumatized to Revitalized through Writing Extended Metaphors,” 75-minute presentation to professionals, National Association of Poetry Therapy, Chicago, IL, April 2012

  • Practitioner of Poetic Medicine, The Ecumenical Center for Education, Counseling & Religion (Founder of The Soul’s Journey Poetry Circle which has served the community continuously for 6 years, and Art of our Hearts Writing Circle for Women Veterans for 4 years)

  • Co-creator in 2020 of Care for the Caregivers Project, which brings the expressive arts into hospitals as emotional support for healthcare professionals, experiencing the extraordinary stress and trauma of pandemic

  • Co-creator in 2021 of Poetic Rhythms Circle with Music Therapist Marisa Castro which uniquely blends aspects of drum circle with poem-making, sponsored by The Ecumenical Center

  • Founder of River Lily Press, 2002 & 2021

Practitioner of Poetic Medicine

Certified in Poetic Medicine through the Institute for Poetic Medicine (IPM) in 2014, Cyra has facilitated hundreds of therapeutic writing circles for people of all ages: children and teens dealing with grief, college students confronting their anxieties and traumatic histories, women veterans, elders building a sense of community while coming to terms with loss, and adults from various walks of life who seek renewal while exploring what it means to be an embodied soul in a beautiful, hurtful world. (For more information regarding how Cyra offers her skills as a Practitioner of Poetic Medicine, please contact her at: cyradumitru@earthlink.net)

Published Poet

Her poetry has been published in numerous national literary journals (Southern Poetry Review, Kalliope, WLA: War, Literature & The Arts, RiverSedge, Windhover: A Journal of Christian Literature, MoonDance: an online journal, The Texas Observer) as well as in many regional publications and anthologies. Her poems have appeared in publications designed for physicians, traveled on buses on city streets, been painted on the walls of City Hall, been hung alongside photographs in art galleries, been sung in concerts as Art Songs, spoken on the local affiliate of National Public Radio, and spoken in dozens of museums, libraries, classrooms, and bookstores around the nation.

She has three book-length collections: What the Body Knows, Listening to Light, Remains, and two chapbooks: Elder Moon: Memoir Told in Poems and Strange Bird: 2021 Reflected in Poems. Two more books will soon be under construction: a memoir called My Brother’s Cup that blends poetry and prose as well as a fifth collection of poems called Swimming the Cathedral.

Single Author Poetry Texts:

Strange Bird: 2021 Reflected in Poems, River Lily Press, 2021*
Elder Moon: Memoir Told as Poems, available at Finishing Line Press, 2019
Remains, Pecan Grove Press, 2008**
Listening to Light, River Lily Press, 2003**
What the Body Knows, Pecan Grove Press, 1999**

Publications: Anthologies

Voices of the Grieving Heart, edited by Mike Bernhardt, Cypress Point Press, 2021
Pandemic Puzzle Poems, Blue Light Press, 2021
Again and Again, Christians in the Visual Arts, 2021
The Larger Geometry, Poems for Peace; peaceCenter Books, 2018
San Antonio Tricentennial Anthology, 2018
Weaving the Terrain, 100 Word Poems, Dos Gatos Press, 2017
Bearing the Mask, Southwestern Persona Poems, Dos Gatos Press, 2016
VIA Poems on the Move, San Antonio VIA Bus System, 2014
Wingbeats, Exercises and Practice in Poetry, Dos Gatos Press, 2011
Big Sky, Big Land, Big Hair, Dos Gatos Press, 2009
Woman at the Well House, Women’s Prayer and Poetry, 2009
Layers of Possibility, Healing Poetry, Palabras Press, 2007
Is This Forever or What?, Greenwillow Press, 2006
Keeping Company, Pecan Grove Press, 1996
Green Rain, San Antonio Independent School District, 1983

Awards

San Ysidro Writer’s Residency, South Texas, March 2020
“For the White Helmets: Syrian Civil Defense Workers” received Third Place National from the 2020 Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest
“Footage” received Honorable Mention in the 2018 Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest
Alice P. Franzke Feminist Award for Faculty 2011, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio

*See our Catalog, New Releases
**See our Catalog, Out of Print