Can anybody tell me what this poem means?

Question

what is it about ? whats the author trying to say exactly ?
& who is the author addressing when he says "you" ?
i totally dont understand it. & its driving me crazy!

The Gift
Li-Young Lee

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he'd removed
the iron silver I thought I'd die from.

I can't remember the tale,
but hear his voice, still a well
of dark water, a prayer.
And I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised above my head.

Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy's palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.
Had you followed that boy
you would arrive here
where I bend over my wife's right hand.

Look how I shave her thumbnail down
so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father
took my hand like this,
and I did not hold that shard
between my fingers and think,
Metal that will bury me,
christen it Little Assassin,
Ore Going Deep for My Heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry,
Death visited here!
I did what a child does
when he's given something to keep.
I kissed my father.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

The poem is about a man who remembers an experience when he was a boy, in which his father distracted him by telling him a story while he pulled out a splinter. He can't remember the story, or what it was about; he only remembers that love with which his father pulled out the splinter.

Later on, he is all grown up and married, and he helps his wife in the exact same way by pulling out the splinter.

I believe that in the last part, he feels remorse for the fact that he didn't cherish the shard that brought him that moment because in the present moment, his father died, as he says "death visited here".

He then kisses his father for the last time.

He also says "you" because he's trying to connect with the reader.

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Asker's Comment:

thank you very much you really helped me alot =)