use Data::Dumper;
my $string = "sp Hello there sp \n Hey hey sp How are you? sp";
my @result = $string =~ m<
    [ ]?  # optional space
    sp    # literal 'sp'
    [ ]?  # optional space
    (.*?) # non-greedy capture
    [ ]?  # optional space
    sp    # literal 'sp'
    [ ]?  # optional space
>xg;
print Dumper(\@result);

__output__

$VAR1 = [
          'Hello there',
          'How are you?'
        ];

[download]
That code does the trick, although you may want to make it more generic if you're working on more complex strings. Also checkout using split() if possible.
HTH

_________
broquaint

In reply to Re: Regular expressions by broquaint
in thread Capturing text between literal string delimiters (was: Regular expressions) by Anonymous Monk

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