#! /usr/bin/perl

sub read_blocks {
  my $handle = shift;
  local $/   = shift;

  while ( my $block = <$handle> ) {
        # replace newlines with simple space
        $block =~ tr/\r\n/ /s;

    print ">>> $block <<<\n";
  }
}

# give it a handle, and the block delimiter
read_blocks( *DATA, "....\n" );


__DATA__
la
 le
   lu ....
foo
   bar ....
what
ever
....