Perhaps you want something like this,
tok = (:) <$> anyToken <*> manyTill anyChar (try (() <$ string sep) <|> eof)
The anyToken
prevents us from looping forever at the end of input, the try
lets us avoid being over-eager in consuming separator characters.
Full code for a test,
module ParsecTest where
import Control.Applicative ((<$), (<$>), (<*>))
import Data.List (intercalate)
import Text.Parsec
import Text.Parsec.String
sep,msg :: String
sep = "*X*"
msg = intercalate "*X*" ["foXo", "ba*Xr", "bX*az"]
tok :: Parser String
tok = (:) <$> anyToken <*> manyTill anyChar (try (() <$ string sep) <|> eof)
toks :: Parser [String]
toks = many tok
test :: Either ParseError [String]
test = runP toks () "" msg