A Pair of Shoes painting by Vincent Van Gogh (from Southern Review) “But why exactly were these shoes so important to Vincent? Why had he carried them with him for so long, beaten and worn as they were?”– Ken Wilber, from the essay A Pair of Worn Shoes The story and intent behind my poem, Ode to the Good Black Boots that Served My Soul So Well , is not extremely different from the story and likely intent behind Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, A Pair of Shoes (see image above). In philosopher Ken Wilber’s book, The Eye of the Spirit - An Integral Vision of a World Gone Slightly Mad, the author retells a story first shared by the painter Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) about a pair of “enormous worn out misshapen shoes” painted by his friend Vincent. The now-iconic Van Gogh (1853–1890) created the image after serving as a caregiver for 40 days and nights to a miner who had been so badly burned that doctors gave him up for dead. Vincent Van Gogh could not accep