use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my $str = 'earth, wind & fire';
$str =~ s/([,&])/ $1 /g;
my @arr = split /\s+/, $str;

print Dumper(\@arr);

__END__

$VAR1 = [
          'earth',
          ',',
          'wind',
          '&',
          'fire'
        ];