If you split on the paragraph separators (two or more consecutive linefeeds), and use capturing parens in the split, it's pretty easy: 
use strict;
use warnings;
$_ = <<EOF;
abc:
  asdf1
  asdf2

def:
  asdf3

ghi:
  asdf4
  asdf5
EOF

my @tkns = split /(\n{2,})/;
my @pars;
for ( @tkns ) {
    if ( /^\n+$/ ) {
        $pars[$#pars] .= $_;
    } else {
        push @pars, $_;
    }
}

printf "found %d paragraphs:\n", scalar @pars;
print "<", join( "><", @pars ), ">\n";

[download]
That prints: 
found 3 paragraphs:
<abc:
  asdf1
  asdf2

><def:
  asdf3

><ghi:
  asdf4
  asdf5
>

[download]

In reply to Re: How to split into paragraphs? by graff
in thread How to split into paragraphs? by jrw

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.