# get your data into a string:
my $data = join '', <DATA>;

# declare a hash variable
my %secs;

# use a regex match to get the bits
while ($data =~ m|<([^>]+)>([^<]+)</\1>|g ) {
    $secs{$1} = $2;
}
print "Regex Method\n";
print "\nSection: '$_'\n", $secs{$_} for keys %secs;

# or use XML::Simple to parse it (generally better) ...
use XML::Simple;
my $hash = XMLin($data);
print "\n\nXML Method\n";
print "\nSection: '$_'\n", $secs{$_} for keys %$hash;

__DATA__
<xml>
  <section1>
  blah1 
  blah1
  </section1>
  
  <section2>
  blah2
  blah2
  </section2>
  
  <section3>
  blah3
  blah3
  </section3>
</xml>