 The verso indicates that some of the poems in the book were previously published in "Conjunctions", "Contact II", "Roof", and "Telephone".Empathy was published by Station Hill Press in 1989, and contains three numbered groups of poems.The verso indicates that some of the poems appeared in "Bridge," "Calaban," "Conjunctions," "Parnassus," "Temblor," and "Tyuonyi".