About empathy.
I deleted the previous comments on this because I changed the poem so much today, that it was almost a different poem altogether. Basically the same idea, but just in case, I deleted out of respect for the commentors.
So empathy, yes....often confused and mixed up with emotions of all kinds. You know empathy though, because it is a calm and reassured supportive caring, free of any and all out-of-control emotion. In medicine and many other professional standards, the lines between empathy and sympathy are too often crossed and confused to the point of ethics' violations that create a huge mess.
Empathy is showing you care in whatever way is needed, and caring enough to put all other feelings aside in order to do so. I believe it comes from a place of much higher intelligence than sheer emotion. It is not void of feeling, just able to govern over it.