Robert, I love the poem by Daryush -- never heard of her. I also like the Cunningham poem. However, Judson Jerome examined "In My Craft or Sullen Art" in one of his books and said that it was accentual poetry.
I would like to note that all the examples of syllabic poetry being posted here are highly rhythmical. They tend to have short lines (syllabic poetry wouldn't work with long lines), and they are marked by varying numbers of stresses per line -- from 2 to 4 for the Daryush poem. This poetry is very far from being free verse. The "plain style" free verse being published today has the cadence of prose, meaning that it can be recited with a stress every third, fourth or fifth syllable. In metered poetry, the stresses typically come every second or third syllable. Most syllabic poetry has the frequent stresses of metered poetry, making it more akin to metered poetry than free verse.
The issue isn't really whether syllabic verse is free verse; the issue is whether we can accept poetry that has a varying number of stresses per line. Personally, I like a varying number of stresses; I think it creates an interesting sound.
Alan, I'm not sure what agreement you think we have all come to for the metrical board. I personally think that the poster needs to decide whether his poetry is metered; otherwise, it puts the moderators in the position of policing every post, which would be a disaster. My view is that as long as the poet is following some kind of measure -- even if that is only counting syllables -- then he or she is writing metered poetry and should post his poetry on the metrical board. Accentual syllabic isn't the only kind of meter.
[This message has been edited by Caleb Murdock (edited January 27, 2001).]
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