They say this soil is too tough for sweetness,
built on old bone, deep coal, and winter frost,
but they don’t know what grows beneath the brick.
I keep you tucked right where the marrow sits,
a buried wealth, like stringy liquorice in the dark.
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Author:
pontefract (
Offline) - Published: August 16th, 2026 06:39
- Comment from author about the poem: Without giving too much away: The Liquorice Cake A Pomfret cake (more commonly spelled Pontefract cake) is a small, round, glossy-black liquorice sweet traditionally pressed with the castle seal of Pontefract. It’s chewy, dense, and unmistakably strong, made from the deep-rooted liquorice plants that once grew in the region’s heavy soil. For centuries these cakes were both a local delicacy and a symbol of the town’s identity: dark, earthy, and unexpectedly sweet. In the poem, the “stringy liquorice in the dark” isn’t just a treat. It’s a metaphor buried beneath a landscape known for coal, frost, and bone. The cake becomes a symbol of something kept “where the marrow sits.” The Township of Pomfret (Pontefract) Pomfret is the old name for Pontefract, a historic market town in West Yorkshire. Its reputation has always leaned toward the rugged: built on coal seams, shaped by industry, crowned by the ruins of a once-formidable castle, and known for winters that bite. Yet beneath that tough exterior, the town has a long tradition of growing liquorice an unlikely crop in such stubborn soil.
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Comments1
And the question is what is this cake. At first I thought it was an old love buried under the walk. Nicely done
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