This is pretty much what I do, with the following differences:

package Blah;
use strict;

=HEAD1 NAME 

...

=cut

BEGIN {
   # If I have one
  use XXX;   # as required here
}

# pragma level 'use's
use vars qw(...);

# Core modules
# CPAN  modules
# local modules
# globals and initializing assignments

# actual code at this point
[download]

I personally prefer the POD at the top, since it encourages me to write it first and update it first. Keeping it in front of my face as the first thing I see when the editor opens the file helps keep that positive guilty feeling of "you didn't update the POD, did you?" going, with the result that I actually do update it.