Cross about art and poetry (8)
I believe the answer is:
traverse
'cross' is the definition.
(I know that cross can be written as traverse)
'about art and poetry' is the wordplay.
'about' says the letters should be written backwards.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'poetry' becomes 'verse' (synonyms).
'art' in reverse letter order is 'tra'.
'tra'+'verse'='TRAVERSE'
(Other definitions for traverse that I've seen before include "Cross sideways" , "Travel across or pass over" , "get across" , "cover" , "Extend or bridge across" .)