Paintings returned — and poetry? It makes you cross (8)
I believe the answer is:
traverse
'cross' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'paintings returned and poetry? it' is the wordplay.
'paintings' becomes 'art' (I've seen this before).
'returned' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'poetry?' becomes 'vers' (I've seen this before).
'it' becomes 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT').
'art' in reverse letter order is 'tra'.
'tra'+'vers'+'e'='TRAVERSE'
'makes you' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for traverse that I've seen before include "Travel across or pass over" , "Move across" , "cover" , "Go across" , "Ski diagonally across (a slope)" .)