What does this peom mean ?

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

The author had a metal splinter sticking out of his palm.  This poem is how the author describes his experience of having it removed.  Here's what he's saying in plain English, paragraph by paragraph, assuming he had asked his father to remove the splinter from his [the author's] hand:

"In order to do this [pull splinter from my palm], my father recited a story in a low voice and I watched his face instead of looking at the blade he pulled the splinter out with.  He removed it before the story ended.  I was so scared of the splinter I thought I'd die from it.

"I can't remember the tale [the story her father recited to her], but I still hear his voice that sounds like dark water, a prayer.  And I remember how he laid his hands on my face to help me through this process of removing the splinter, to keep me from going insane during the removal.

"If you [anyone else, including the reader of the poem] had entered the room that day, you would have thought a father was putting something INNTO the boy's palm [the author is male], like a tiny flame [perhaps on a tiny matchstick?]  If you'd followed me through the years, you'd see how now I bend over my wife's hand to remove the splinter from it.

"Look at how I handle her thumbnail so that she doesn't feel any pain, watch as I lift the splinter out.  I was only 7 when my father did this for me and yet I have NEVER held such a thing in my hands before thinking that this piece of metal is what is going to make me die by going straight for my heart, and I did not back then raise my hand after the removal to say that death had visited me [very frightened, scared to death].  I did what a child does: kissed my father [for removing the splinter and that I hadn't died of it sitting in the palm of my hand (it went through the skin and was sticking out the palm)]."

Basically, he's describing how relieved he is that he didn't die from having a piece of metal stick out of his hand and how painless his father made this process for him by making him strong (hands on face) and fearless and reciting him a story to distract him from what the father was doing.  Then he says "Hey, I was only 7 and have never held a metal splinter before and now I have to remove it from my wife's hand, look at how good I am at this, so good she doesn't feel any pain!"

Does this help?  Poems can be difficult to interpret, I know.