Northwest Passage offers a selection of poems that traces the poet's own development and the development of his poetry in both style and substance. The poems in this collection presents the significance and meaning of various events during several decades, many of those events taking place within the rich setting of the Pacific Northwest.From the disturbing imagery of "Nuremberg Revisited" to the hope of a new year in "Reconnaissance<" the poet offers his response to his environment and the lives of people who have had a significant influence on him and on the history of ideas.

"Wayne Luckmann writes with a gathering force. A situation suggests an idea in turn suggesting language and a poem begins to emerge. Image is added carefully to image to combine an emotional with an intellectual effect. His desire to combine intellectual reactions with emotional responses dictates situation, language, and length in his poetry." (Spring Rain Press)